Mass shootings

 

                             This map doesn't include this weekend's shootings*

The news said today there were 270 mass shootings for far this year in the United States. Six just this past weekend.

Two were in Texas, one in Dallas where my husband was visiting his daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and grandson.

I didn't want him to go to Texas because of the guns and gun nuts. The other shootings were in Chicago and Savannah.

I so wanted him to see his family who lives there.

I was in the kitchen when I heard the TV say one of the shootings was in Dallas. I literally stopped breathing for a second. It is the same thing that when their was a crash at Logan airport, friends in different part of the world called to make sure I wasn't flying that day. 

After this he goes to Orlando, FL which just has recognized the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting in a nightclub.

I asked him to call the place where the conference he will attend to ask about their security. However just because there's security, it doesn't mean some unhappy employee won't decide to make headlines with an AR-15. 

Yes, I know statistically more people have NOT been shot than shot. Some of the shootings are family issue related. Yet there are still too many that are the result of random violence. And innocent people including children get caught in the crossfire.

Before I left the states, two people I know were murdered.

One was in Lexington. Kathleen Dempsey was stabbed in her home. She called 911. The police thinking it was joke didn't respond. She could have been saved had an ambulance come in time. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/kathleen-dempsey

The other was Sharon Galligan https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2012/12/murders_mix_with_yuletide_chee.html, the brilliant daughter of a co-worker. Her body was stuffed into her car, her feet on the headrest and no one thinking it odd enough to call the police.

Both those murders came too close to home. But that was one-on-one, not a mass murder. 

I almost wish I hadn't asked him to buy me grits and Constant Comment. I didn't want him anywhere there are guns at fingertips. However, he bought both and got out alive.

A civilized country does not have mass shootings on a regular basis.  

*Map from the New York Times.