Have We Become Numb to the Shootings?

Mass shootings seem to be happening too often all across this country, and it seems that we are  becoming numb to them, even if they occur in school buildings and children are the ones who are being shot.

The latest mass school shooting in our nation occurred in Kentucky last week and resulted in 20 high-school youths being shot, with two killed and three shot in the head by a fellow student.

“It is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County,” said Kentucky’s Gov. Matt Bevin.

Kentucky has no gun control laws to speak of, it has lots of guns, and its citizens are no different (better or worse) than anywhere else — which is to say that they too, can do irrational things.

The response of the pro-gun politicians in Kentucky to the school shooting has been to call for the hiring of armed guards for every school in Kentucky.

So instead of spending money on education, the state will be spending its money to turn its schools into armed camps, which in itself can cause potential problems.

But what about the idea of enacting strong gun control laws in order to cut down on the number of such incidents?

“You can’t regulate evil,” Bevin declared.

On that point, we think the comment by New York Times columnist, Gail Collins, in response to Bevin’s statement was spot-on.

Ms. Collins wrote, “Maybe not, but you can definitely try to disarm evil.”

More than 100,000 Americans are killed or wounded by guns in our country each and every year. That is a staggering figure.

But what are we doing about it?

Obviously, not enough.