Why You Don't Give a Rip About Mass Shootings.....

Here is a future headline news item:
Today, a normal day in (insert any city or town) was changed when shots rang out at a (insert a church, concert, movie theater, school).  An unknown gunman opened fire in the area for an unknown reason. Authorities say that as of now this massacre includes (pick a number between 4 and 40) known dead. The victims include members of the (pick anybody's name) family.

So here is what will happen afterwards. Every news agency will send their reporters to cover the story for two days. People will hashtag "prayforthatcity" on social media. People and politicians will cry out that finally something must be done! But that's about it.

Nothing really changes. No new laws are passed. Nothing changes in mental health processes. We move on. We bury the dead and move on.

The horror of Las Vegas.

People say that's the price for living in a free society. But that's bullshit. That's the price you pay when nobody wants to change it.

We put a man on the moon because we wanted to. We have recently made huge advances in curing cancer because we wanted to. We are finally dealing with the opioid crisis in this country because we want to. Not enough people want to do anything about the causes of mass shootings.

In World War II, psychologist J.T. MacCurdy studied Londoners whose neighborhoods were bombed by the Nazis. He classified those people into three groups. Type 1 were the deceased victims, Type 2 were the near misses. Type 3 were the majority, or the remote misses.

The Type 1 had no opinions. The dead don't complain. The Type 2, or near misses, were horrified. They had seen the death , blood and destruction. They knew the sheer horror of it. They were affected deeply. Type 3 were the surprise. They felt invincible. Almost excited. They had lived through the attack, and came out fine. That's the majority of us after a mass shooting. We believe it will always happen to "the other guy".

A place of worship was turned into hell.

This year, we are averaging one mass shooting in our country per day. On October 1st, Las Vegas wasn't the only mass shooting. It was just the largest. The same day there was one near the University of Kansas. By definition, a mass shooting is where 4 or more people are killed. More Americans have been killed by gunfire since 1968 than in all wars combined. Time for a change.

I don't know how to solve the problem. But I bet we could figure it out if we wanted to. How about if a committee were formed with our best and brightest to study it. Members could be mental health professionals, the corporate community, law enforcement, educators, some politicians, and others.The only requirement for being on the committee would be that you genuinely cared about the problem, and wanted a positive outcome.

It would be our "moonshot" to solve this horror.

Here's another potential future news item:
Today, a normal day in (insert your city or town) was changed when shots rang out at at (insert your address).  An unknown gunman opened fire in the area for an unknown reason. Authorities say that as of now this massacre includes (pick the number of people in your family) known dead. The victims include members of the (insert your family name) family.

Now you care. Can we figure this out before we become another statistic?