Eugene Robinson: 'We know, beyond the slightest doubt, that it will happen again."

[kpete]

The carnage will continue

We will never know why. We already know how, but we don’t care about that. And we know, beyond the slightest doubt, that it will happen again.

..........

Sound from cellphone videos taken during the Las Vegas massacre clearly indicates that Paddock was using a fully automatic rifle — meaning that squeezing and holding the trigger unleashed a long, continuous burst of gunfire. Such machine guns were supposedly outlawed in 1986, but there are two huge loopholes: In some states, it is legal to buy and sell machine guns that were made before 1986; and Internet merchants sell kits that convert semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic killing machines.

No deer hunter or target-shooting enthusiast needs a weapon intended for war zones — a weapon designed and optimized for use by soldiers against enemy forces. But if the Newtown, Conn., massacre of 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds didn’t even lead to universal background checks for gun purchasers, let alone a ban on assault weapons, I don’t see why anyone should believe things will be different this time around.


............

A mass shooting or a terrorist rampage, on the other hand, rivets the nation. Television networks shift into continuous “breaking news” coverage. Newspapers rush to profile the shooter, then the victims. The president makes a statement expressing the nation’s grief. Gun-rights advocates pre-emptively declare that this is not the time to talk about gun control, accusing anyone who does of politicizing tragedy. Gun-control proponents ask: If not now, then when? Everyone agrees we should do something about mental health, but we end up doing nothing. A long series of funerals ends the ritual.

We go back to our routines as if there won’t be a next time. But there will. And we all know it.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-carnage-will-continue/2017/10/02/59e51d62-a7ab-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.e7a0a3ab4406

[Skittles]

1. GUN HUMPERS HAVE WON

now we have to ACCEPT mass shootings because of their paranoia

[rockfordfile]

5. No they won't

[Skittles]

8. who is THEY?

[Barack_America]

2. Mass shootings are the new normal.

We all know the only way to prevent them is to stop the guns, and we all know that's not going to happen.

After Newton, I literally cannot think of a situation where enough would be "enough".

Maybe if (when) some good ol' boy mows down an entire mega church? Doubtful even then.

[TeamPooka]

3. a white supremacist did that already

[TeamPooka]

4. not a mega but same thing

[niyad]

6. I almost feel like I will see one of these horrifying headlines every time I check my newsfeed.

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R