Every Day

I have quoted it here before, but it seems to bear repeating: The death of one is a tragedy. But the death of millions is just a statistic. And here are the statistics: More than thirty thousand people are killed by firearms in the United States each year. One half of them are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. One third of them are under the age of twenty. More than thirty people are shot and killed in the United States every day.
Every day.
As a matter of fact, in 2015, the United States is averaging more than one mass shooting every day. As of August, there were two hundred forty-seven murderous rampages in two hundred thirty-eight days. This past week the headline grabber was San Bernardino, where fourteen people were killed and seventeen more were injured when a married couple decided to push that envelope just a little further. This was not the only mass shooting in the USA last Wednesday. If you take as a definition that anytime more than four individuals are injured or killed, then the first mass shooting that day was in Savannah, Georgia. Brandy Council was shot and killed early that morning. Three others were wounded. Authorities are still looking for a suspect and a motive. Terrorism? Drug deal gone bad? Profoundly confused attempt at promoting "right to life?"
Thou shall not kill. It's in that book, the one that folks like to use when they are looking for answers. They use it to help them pray. They pray for the victims. They pray for their families. For the record, I pray too. It couldn't hurt, but I don't know if prayer alone will be what it takes to keep us from killing each other by the dozens.
I suppose I could pray for common sense gun control. I could pray for the whole thing to have been an awful dream. In the meantime I will keep flinching in anticipation of each new tragedy. Each new statistic. And hoping that I don't grow numb from the experience. Maybe I won't have to keep writing about this mess anymore either. I can dream, can't I?