There have been more than a dozen school shootings so far in 2018 (CNN). Each time, like there’s a template for these things, there’s a candlelight vigil, lots of talk about how the community comes together and the inevitable hashtag meme, [city name]STRONG. And some minister or mayor or congressperson will say, “This is not who we are.”
According to CNN, 2017’s 90 US mass shootings are nearly one-third of the 292 such attacks globally for that period. While the United States has 5% of the world’s population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings.
This is who we are.
But this is not who we should be.
We need to stop telling this lie: “This is not who we are.” In fact, the frequency of mass shootings and school shootings practically defines the US and sets us apart from other countries.