It Was Another Brutal Week for Mass Gun Violence in America

[flamin lib]

http://www.vice.com/read/it-was-another-brutal-week-for-mass-gun-violence-in-america

Over the past seven days, America witnessed eight mass shootings that left seven dead and 32 wounded. These attacks bring the US mass shooting body count so far in 2016 to 318 dead and 1,147 injured.

Meanwhile, Europe suffered one mass shooting over the same period. On Sunday, gunmen opened fire on a car after chasing it through the southern neighborhoods of Malmo, Sweden, injuring four people before fleeing. This attack brings the continent's body toll in such attacks so far this year up to 43 dead and 140 injured.

This past week actually witnessed fewer American mass shootings and saw fewer people hurt in such attacks than the previous one (Over those seven days, America endured nine mass shootings that left seven dead and 41 wounded). But the past few days still felt more brutal than any span of time in the last few weeks, thanks in large part to a rapid succession of eye-catching attacks that drew sustained national and international media coverage.
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It's understandable that apparently random rampages stoke more personal concern than other attacks, and that novel settings and lurid details catch audiences' eyes. But focusing the bulk of our attention on such attacks blinds us to the real epicenters and some of the worst incidences of America's mass shooting epidemic. And it magnifies fear of rare—if terrible—incidents, while jading us to the common large-scale gun violence ripping through the country almost daily.

What can be said about this? I'm at a loss. Even with this horrendous carnage from mass shootings, they are a mere distraction from the daily toll taken by our gun worshiping culture.

It's depressing.

Go vote. Make a change. Then hold them accountable on the gun violence issue.

[billh58]

1. And another "ho hum" week

for the right-wing gun lobby and its Second Amendment absolutist apologists. But the crime rate is down they say, as if that makes one whit of difference to the loved ones of the dead and injured. We need more guns in more hands to make us safer they say, as if a shoot out at the neighborhood bar would be a good thing.

It is time to reduce the number of guns in our society by implementing meaningful gun control, to include universal background checks at the local level to weed out habitual drunks, wife beaters, and anti-social militia-type assholes. It is time to make the sale of high capacity military style weapons illegal. It is time to enact and enforce safe storage laws for all lethal weapons (yes Mr. Gunner, it can be done).

As flaming lib said above, Go Vote for a Democrat who will stand up to the right-wing gun assholes who enable mass death in this country on a daily basis.