05/25/2022
"We use the term mass shooting quite often to describe these sorts of tragedies. And yet, officially, mass shootings do not exist. There is no definition or description of what a mass shooting is. Which means we can use the term loosely and attach it to events that fit our world view excluding those that don’t. According to a study done by the Watson Institute, the war on terror that brought the US to Afghanistan and Iraq is responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 people nearly half of those people being civilians. When the military kills someone or a whole lot of people why don’t we call it a mass shooting? When an unarmed black man is shot 76 times by police why isn’t it the lead story for the next three months like Sandy Hook? Why don’t we give a damn when there’s a drive by shooting, a robbery gone wrong or a domestic dispute that ends in a murder/suicide? Shouldn’t they be mass shootings too? And I know its ancient history, but when native men and women were being killed for sport and their land was taken from them why can’t we label that a mass shooting too. Or is it so far in the past…too far to extend the label perhaps. When you define something, you set up parameters that are irrefutable. You can study it. Pass laws to prevent it from happening. Diagnose it in a clinic. Track it with statistics. Correlate data. Something. You could do something. Instead we do nothing and we watch and we wait for the next shooting to come along." Your Thoughts and Prayers
