WHAT ABOUT THE 8,000+ OTHERS?

Events like the latest multi-homicide deaths of at least 12 in Aurora, CO, capture our attention, but what about the other 8,000+ gun related deaths that occur in America per year ?*  Those that are injured but not fatally, of course, are much more.  So the Aurora incident will capture the news media for a while.  Then things will quiet down while we wait for the next multi-homicide event.  Wait for the next event?  Sure there will be another.  We have a population of over 300 million people, and these people can buy all the guns they want.  James Holmes of the Aurora massacre had four: two Glock 40 caliber pistols, a shotgun, and an assault rifle plus thousands of rounds of ammunition that he had bought online.

For a while after the Reagan assassination attempt that turned his press secretary - Brady - into a vegetable, we had a ban on the sale of assault weapons, but even that was considered too much gun control in this country so it was overturned.  We live in an armed camp, and we still fancy we live in the "Wild West" of yore.  In fact California is the leader in the number of firearm murders per year.

So far there has been almost no talk about gun control after the Aurora incident.  There may be something more in the days to come but nothing will be done with it just as nothing was done after the Columbine, CO, incident (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), and the Giffords massacre in Tucson, Arizona (2011).**  There also are less famous ones. Who even remembers the San Ysidro McDonalds massacre in which 21 were killed (1984), San Diego, CA, or the Luby's massacre in Killean, TX, in which 22 (1991) were killed or the Capitol Hill Massacre in Washington State (2006) where 6 were killed.**

We get used to such things as thousands being killed every year by guns just as we have gotten used to around 30,000+ killed every year in automobile accidents in spite of attempts to protect people against themselves with seat belts, air bags etc.  I especially grieve at those murder incidents by people who commit suicide but who first must take down others with them.***

These multi-homicide events attract attention for a while, but who thinks about the thousands of others every year who are murdered anonymously as we wait for the next massacre?

Note added July 23, 2012:  Why do so many fight to allow individuals to own assault weapons?  I think the answer is in the occasional e-mail I get about the possibly need of the citizenry protecting itself against the dictatorial government.  These people also stock pile thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Note added July24, 2012:  Eugene Robinson expresses views very similar to this post about guns and massacres. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-mass-shootings-are-a-tragedy-we-dont-want-to-avert/2012/07/23/gJQAghsI5W_story.html


* http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_events_named_massacres
*** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2012/06/suicide.html