As you likely know by now, there was another mass shooting in America yesterday. Actually, according to Shooting Tracker, there were two.
One was in Savannah, Georgia, and led to three injuries, one death and, so far, no clear motive. Few people noticed, fewer cared. The other was in San Bernardino, California, and led to 14 deaths, 17 injuries and, so far, no clear motive. In this case, the coverage has been wall-to-wall.
Despite our knowing so very little about the specific reasons for these shootings, though, there are some things we can say already. They are not the things the media and public has thus far concerned themselves with, mind you; they have little to do with whether people who pray are dummies. They have even less to do with whether elites of faith who are offended by this mockery are victims, too.
What we can say instead is that there are more mass shootings in the United States than in any other wealthy democracy in the world. It’s not close. We can also say there are more guns in the United States than in any other wealthy democracy in the world. It’s not close. And finally, we can say that there’s probably a connection between these two truths. More guns. More mass shootings. More preventable deaths.