…soon to be forgotten. From Newsweek,
4 Dead, 20 Injured in Mass Shooting at South Carolina Bar, Sheriff Says.
This one occurred late last night in coastal South Carolina. From NPR News,
6 dead in a shooting after Mississippi homecoming game.
Another 20 were injured in the incident which occurred after a Friday night high school football game. NPR is quick to note,
The Gun Violence Archive says that so far this year, the U.S. has seen more than 330 mass shootings — in which four or more people were shot.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about two of those incidents: one up the coast in North Carolina and the other targeting that Mormon church in Michigan. Both appear to have been forgotten by the national media.
One incident that has not been forgotten occurred here in Minnesota and involved catholic schoolchildren victims and a transgendered shooter. Gov. Tim Walz and state Democrats have been trying to use this incident (unsuccessfully) to push a gun control agenda at the legislature.
I’ve always believed that this emphasis on the tools, rather than the underlying motivations, is entirely misplaced. Dig down one layer on these incidents and they almost always fall into one of two buckets: untreated (or maltreated) mental illness or unpunished serial criminals.
A cynical decision was made decades ago to shut down our mental institutions. Cynical decisions are made every day in court to cut loose criminals with lengthy records.
They tell me that we can’t institutionalize or incarcerate our way out of this problem. They are wrong.
