We’re All So Outraged About Another Mass Shooting. Or Not.

– Posted in: Complaining, Life is Dangerous, Mean Girls, Media, Tammy Thinks, Uncategorized, World Gone Crazy, Worst Mom Rants

So as I’m sure you’ve all heard, we’ve had another mass shooting. Every news outlet is covering it. Every talk show is analyzing it. Every blogger is writing about it. And I have to say, I’m pretty much over it.

unhappy face on sidewalk Yeah, I’m kind of done.

Remember a few months ago in Newtown when all those little kids got shot? Everyone threw up their hands, tore at their clothes, cried in front of their televisions, lit candles, signed petitions, wrote their congresspeople, ranted on Facebook, walked their kids into school, double-checked the front entrance locks, bought bullet-proof backpacks, enacted “code red” drills to teach kids to quietly hide in corners and scare the shit out of everyone, railed about the crappy mental health system, screamed about assault weapons and clip sizes, threw their hands up at the wing-batted argument that “criminals won’t obey the laws so why have them,” freaked out when the Senate failed to pass gun reform that every sensible person in the Union agreed with, shook their heads when Nevada legislators voted down background checks, shrugged their shoulders when two Colorado legislators were recalled for having passed gun laws, and finally. . .

Listened to a whole bunch of experts and advocates spout off the same statistics that get spouted off every time something “unthinkable” like this happens.

Something “unthinkable.” Like a guy shooting a bunch of people in a movie theater. Or at a political rally. Or on a college campus. Totally, absolutely, un-frickin-thinkable.

This latest shooting at the Washington Navy Yard is just going to bring us more bullshit. “More people” calling for better background checks and mental health services. Better “tightening” of various security systems and protocols where someone “slipped through the cracks.” Maybe even another task force or blue ribbon committee to figure out what to do.

What to do, what to do.

What the heck should we do.

It’s just a freakin’ mystery, isn’t it? There are more than 30,000 gun deaths in the U.S. ever year. If that statistic applied to anything else — anything else — people would be losing their shit and demanding radical action. Immediate relief from the scourge. For god’s sake, 2,996 people died on September 11th, and 12 years later, we’ve decimated two countries and all voluntarily go through naked scanners at the airport. Three people die at a marathon, and we close down Boston. Ninety people die from West Nile virus, and we never go outside.

Right now, in a small section of New Orleans, there’s a microbe infecting the water supply. It normally lives in warm lakes and kills people by getting up their noses and into their brains. Clearly the residents of this area deserve to have safe, clean water. But since 1962, there’ve been 132 documented cases of Naegleria fowleri in the U.S. That’s fewer than 3 cases a year. You are 10,000 times more likely to be killed with a gun than have one of these things go up your nose. And I’ll guarantee you there’ll be a certain number of people who won’t go swimming in lakes anymore after they hear this.

Why? Apparently because we’re nuts. Irrational, illogical gun nuts. Happy to just keep our firearms and get worked up every few months when some wacko makes the national news for shooting more than one or two people. Happy to watch the faces of the victims go by and feel sad when we hear how nice they were and how they’ll be missed. Happy to get really angry and then just go back to our regular lives.

Why not? In between there’s always Duck Dynasty and American Idol.

 

14 Comments… add one

Cheryl S. September 17, 2013, 8:37 pm

I am sure you are shocked to hear this, but I agree wholeheartedly. And why should we care? The sane and rational among us vote for tighter laws and background checks, to no avail. The NRA is an entity unto itself. Above the law. Beyond reason. This will never stop and never change.

Tammy September 17, 2013, 9:48 pm

Nope. You can’t change crazy.

Polly September 17, 2013, 9:25 pm

You left out Honey Boo-Boo. I’m so disappointed in you.

Tammy September 17, 2013, 9:49 pm

Rats. And I totally could’ve used that. I failed that whole “grouping of three’s” thing.

Carol the Long winded September 17, 2013, 10:05 pm

The real problem is the senate – each senator represents between 1 million and 37 million people. WTF? So 2 dicks representing 2 million people have more power than 1 representing 37 million.
As a person in a small state, this works for me of course. Go Harry! and I really don’t want Massachusetts telling NV we have to accept Yucca Mountain, but why can’t we have national referendums? Where simple majority would rule?
(Btw, the gun the shooter had was one legal in all 50 states. )

Tammy September 18, 2013, 9:57 am

I’m guessing the simple referendum thing wouldn’t fly because it’s a constitutional item and then the right would use it to do things like send gay people to an island. Not that that would actually happen anymore since the tide has completely turned, and I think the country would vote in favor of things like gay marriage now. But, yeah, that’s my guess.

Molly September 18, 2013, 6:20 am

Word.

I wanted to say just that, “word,” but your fancy computer spam catcher won’t let me.
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Tammy September 18, 2013, 9:58 am

I know. Doesn’t that drive you nuts. I did the same thing yesterday on someone else’s blog. They completely kicked me off for being a spam bot. On the upside, this program has caught something like 89,000 spams? Crazy.

Kelly DeBie September 18, 2013, 9:40 am

You know I agree.
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Tammy September 18, 2013, 9:59 am

Oh yes I do.

Andrea September 18, 2013, 2:58 pm

Where there are guns involved, people wring their hands and clutch their pearls and CAN’T BELIEVE this happens to innocent people. And then they go home and write “buy more ammo” on their grocery lists.
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Tammy September 18, 2013, 4:27 pm

Exactly.

Trish October 4, 2013, 9:42 pm

I know I am a bit late to the party on this one, but I couldn’t agree more. The media is a huge culprit on this one. The more they talk about it, the more it seems to happen. I’m not sure how many school shootings there were before Columbine, but I can tell you there has been a boatload afterwards.It’s a horrible thing that happens, but the constant reporting gives the already unbalanced ideas that they may have never have acted out on their own. Now they get to go out like an “outlaw” and never be forgotten.
I live in Illinois, and until recently, concealed carry was against the law. Now that they are banging out the particulars up in the state senate, all I hear on FB is people who are going to rush out to buy guns. People who have never once held a weapon. They justify it by saying that if they are armed, they will be able to stop a mass shooting if they are there. Really? Because I tend to think that, without rigorous training, shooting a firearm is a stressful situation like that will cause even more to get killed by friendly fire. Oddly enough, my opinion is not a popular one. I have had more people I went to school with block and delete me from FB.

Tammy December 16, 2013, 5:29 pm

Okay, talk about late to the party. I JUST found this in my spam folder! I’m so sorry. Totally agree. I read that we’ve had a school shooting a month in the last year. Don’t know the stats before that, but that’s ridiculous. And the concealed carry? I don’t get it either. If you talk to a trained professional, they’ll tell you that even THEY start to lose their skills after not practicing for a couple of WEEKS. How does some Joe off the street expect to be all Rambo and not kill one of us by mistake?
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