We will investigate and speculate and argue and honor and then forget and move on and pretend this is all normal and unavoidable.
Everything is an excuse.
We’ll hear calls for “thoughts and prayers”.
Investigations and motivations.
We’ll hear about mental illness and talk of his being troubled.
Every conceivable excuse not to prevent the next one.
We’ll use data about how many guns get used for mass shootings versus how many do not. Just not the data on self-inflicted deaths. Or how many became violent because they had ready access.
Collecting data is also an excuse. We have plenty. And we’ve long made excuses not to collect more. But it isn’t really a step forward now. It’s another delay tactic.
Everything is an excuse to do nothing.
But just because we’re doing nothing to prevent mass shootings and preventable gun deaths, that doesn’t mean nothing is being done.
While we do nothing about this, gun manufacturers and ALEC push for ever-weakening gun and homicide laws.
Everything is an excuse. But none of this is justified.