Mass Shootings Have Become as American as Apple Pie & The Fourth of July

Six people were shot and killed with 24 others wounded at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

The attack appears to have carried out by means of a high powered rifle on rooftop. Authorities have apprehended a 22-year white, male "person of interest". They are characterizing the attack as random in nature.

All I can really say is that mass shootings have become as American as apple pie and the Fourth of July. Of course, they do happen in other countries as was the case yesterday at a shopping mall in Copenhagen, Denmark which claimed the lives of three people. 

Conservatives see fit to use tragedy in Denmark as proof than gun laws don't work. Yet this is only the third mass shooting in Denmark over more than 25 years. The last mass shooting in Denmark was more than seven years ago and that was an act Islamic terrorism which targeted a cultural center and a synagogue resulting in the deaths of two people with five police officers sustaining injuries before they eventually killed the perpetrator. Prior to that one has to go back to 1996 when a shootout between the Hell's Angels and the Bandidos took place at the Copenhagen Airport resulting in a single death.

The point is that mass shootings are not an everyday occurrence in Denmark. Here they are an everyday occurrence with over 306 mass shootings in the first 185 days of 2022. Of course, no gun law is going to entirely prevent murder from firearms. But no law against murder is going to prevent murder. Does this mean we should do away with murder laws?

Last month, President Biden signed a new gun measure which was the first passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. After offering thoughts and prayers, no doubt Republicans will say, "See, gun laws don't work." But when the centerpiece of the legislation is to give state incentives to expand red flag laws such measures are doomed to failure. At best, its successes will be few and far between.

Meanwhile, Americans will be on guard for the most routine activities such as going grocery shopping and the most festive of occasions alike. This shall include me as I will soon make my way to watch the Fourth of July fireworks on the Charles River.