COTW: The Increasing Frenzy

It is a testament to the extent of mental illness in this society that it has become more enamored with the grotesque rituals that surround each mass shooting in America than actually formulating political will to do something to reduce the number of guns at large. The emotionally unstable and guns do not mix as US Person has written before {21.07.12, The Joker Comes Down}. The United States is plagued by both. There was no legitimate reason for the Roseburg killer to amass thirteen rifles, many semi-automatic, other than to eventually use them against his fellow human beings. Roseburg is rabid gun country.   But no hunter worth the name needs that many weapons to kill an occasional deer or elk for sport. As Pope Francis has said publicly, arms manufacture is a international big business, so the supply will not stop anytime soon. Only the United States has done very little in comparison to other developed nations to keep them out of the hands of the deranged and criminal. The nation hides behind a historical anachronism that has little relevance in modern society while the cash registers keep ringing up gun sales. The frequency of mass shootings is higher in the US than anywhere else in the world and increasing; mass shootings do happen in other countries but only the US has such a permissive culture when it comes to using deadly force. Even when accounting for disparity in population, the US still makes the upper half of the list surpassing China, Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany and Mexico. Finland, Switzerland and Norway have higher rates of mass shootings than the US, but only because each small country suffered a horrific mass slaughter since 2000. In Norway, a gunman killed 67 people in one rampage. Perhaps the easy sentiment so publicly on display and parsing of homicide statistics will finally wear thin and the 'Merican people will say enough is enough.