Pols ignore mass shootings we can do something about: gang violence

[Geee]

NY Post

The headlines coming out of the weekend were grim. 

Axios: “At least 54 injured, 11 killed in 7 separate mass shootings this weekend.” NBC News: “At least 12 dead in another weekend of mass shootings across America.” Yahoo! News: “At least 12 dead in 10 mass shootings in US over the weekend.”

The headlines are clearly designed to create the impression that the United States is experiencing a Buffalo or Uvalde almost every day. It isn’t true. None of the shootings over the weekend had anything in common with those horrific events. As far as I could determine, none was carried out with AR-15s, and most involved beefs among people at parties or in or around bars, with many having the hallmarks of gang shootings. 

The first incident in the Axios report involved two cars pulling up at a graduation party in Summerton, SC, and opening fire, killing one and wounding another seven. Almost all the victims were in their teens. According to police, it was a gang-related shooting stemming from previous drive-by shootings. 

The quotidian violence of teenagers shooting teenagers in petty disputes and gang-related vendettas shouldn’t be minimized — in fact, it’s a significant blight on American life, disproportionately affecting young African-American men and rendering certain neighborhoods in our country borderline unlivable. But they are a different category from what we commonly think of as a mass shooting.