With the gun deaths at a Troutdale high school today, we're at 74 school shootings since the slaughter of first-graders in Newtown, Conn just 19 months ago. Here's the list, which does not include the murders near UC Santa Barbara since they didn't occur on campus.
As for our country's response? Well The Onion said it best after the rampage in California a couple of weeks ago: "'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation where this Regularly Happens."
That certainly proves America's "exceptionalism."
What is also exceptional about these school shootings is that they're still considered lead items on the news. They're now more commonplace than horrific bus crashes in India, which rarely even rate a two-inch story buried deep within the daily newspaper.
The gun-fetish crowd likes to blame violent video games for these school shootings, but I haven't heard of one case where a student brought in a violent video game and killed a fellow student with it.
Or, mental illness is also blamed. Yes, mental illness is a problem and dealing with it is a monumental undertaking, but the NRA makes sure that everyone, including those on the terrorist-watch list, has access to firearms.
It's our Constitutional right, which apparently supersedes any other right.
If there was no change in this country's national gun laws after the Newtown killings, there will be no changes to gun laws in this country even after 74,000 school shootings, despite the worthy efforts of such groups as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
This is who we are. We can't do any better.
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