I don't know which is worse.
The fact that 27 people--most of them small children--are dead because they went to school/work...
Or the fact that we all know exactly what is going to happen next:
1. The president gives a speech, everyone agrees that now is the time for mourning and not politicizing these tragic deaths.
2. Everyone immediate begins to politicize the deaths. For about three days we are subject to the same rhetoric we hear every time something like this happens:
blah blah blah blah blah blah Aurora blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the Columbine killers got all their weapons legally blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah average police response time is six minutes blah blah blah blah blah blah blah if concealed carry was allowed tragedies like this wouldn't happen blah blah blah blah blah blah those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Columbine blah blah blah blah blah blah blah this is a mental health issue, not a gun control issue blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah what could any civilian possible need an assault rifle fore? Hunting deer? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the NRA has a stranglehold on Congress blah blah blah blah blah blah blah as a European I don't understand why American are so hell bent on owning firearms blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah what about all the responsible gun owners who never shoot anyone blah blah blah blah blah blah they don't have guns in Japan and nobody gets shot over there blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Ft. Hood blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah we need all these guns to keep foreign powers and the government from taking away our liberties blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah if guns were illegal he would have just done the same thing with a knife or bomb blah blah blah blah blah blah if we ban guns then only criminals will have guns blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah people die all the time in car crashes so by that logic we should just ban car blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah s blah Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot all favored gun control blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the framers of the Constitution could have never envisioned high capacity assault rifles blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Virginia Tech blah blah blah blah blah blah blah how many more times must this happen before Americans wise up and outlaw guns blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
3. Interest quickly wanes and the news cycle picks up on something else.
4. Absolutely no meaningful legislation regarding mental health, security, gun control--pick your poison--is passed. No minds are changed, no opinions are shifted.
5. In the end, all that happens is Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut becomes just another place, a place that is used in the same sentence as Columbine, Virginia Tech, Ft. Hood, Tucson, and Aurora--the next time something horrible happens.
Like I said, I don't know which is worse.
