Did You Hear That?

 We like to talk about "shots heard 'round the world." Initially, it was the one that rang out in Lexington and Concord back in 1775. This, and those subsequent shots, were the ones that eventually added up to a surrender by the British in Yorktown, paving the way for Independence for its former colonies. It was from that shot that the right to bear arms became ensconced in our Constitution. 

It was years later when an assassin took the life of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This shot is generally considered to be the one that started World War I, or as it was known at the time "The War To End All Wars." I would like to point out that a semi-automatic handgun was used to carry out this killing. In 1914. One hundred forty years of advancements had already made killing more efficient. 

Meanwhile, sports writers adopted the phrase and began to sprinkle their reports with "shots hear 'round the world" to describe less lethal encounters involving baseballs and the like. These days, when shots are heard, they are quite often heard 'round the world, but only for moments at a time. As soon as shots ring out somewhere else, particularly in the United States, satellite trucks pack up and redeploy where the most recent carnage can be found. 

On Monday, they hastened themselves to Highland Park, Illinois. That is where a rooftop shooter killed six and wounded another twenty-four. The victims were lined up to watch the Independence Day Parade. While the celebration played out on the streets below, death rained down from above. Those weren't firecrackers, or the backfire of some old-time fire engine. That was the sound of the Second Amendment being abused once again. 

What better way to prove that we have earned our independence than to prove once again that as a nation we have no conscience and an alarmingly short memory? Once again, the world will pause during their own celebrations, struggles and conflicts to stare once again at the slow motion train wreck that is America and their guns. Schools, churches, grocery stores, and now holiday parades. Across the ocean in Denmark, one of their citizens shot up a shopping mall in Copenhagen leaving three people dead and several more injured. The last mass shooting in Denmark was seven years ago. 

This is when I thought about that old saw about how the United States is a "city on a hill." This makes it so much easier for anyone to see and hear the shots fired. 

Not in a good way.