Embittered, Frustrated, Futile

America’s daily routine is well-coached. And, yes, daily is the proper description because mass shootings in America have become exactly that. The media go through the social networks with a fine-toothed comb looking for answers to the question of why the 26-year-old shooter opened fire on fellow students at an Oregon college, killing 10 of them and wounding many more. They’ll let us know which four guns he carried with him during his rampage.

Meanwhile, candles will burn next to homemade memorials and expressions of grief on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The heroes in the incident are rapidly becoming known, such as Chris Mintz, an Army veteran already being celebrated by the American media. Witnesses say he took seven shots as he tried to protect female students from the gunfire. Mintz remains hospitalized with severe wounds.

The politicians are also well-coached. The Democrats demand stronger gun controls and a reform of gun laws. The nation’s largest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, is already calling for more guns and the arming of teachers. And with their usual generous donations to Republican politicians, it will do little except to talk about more treatment for mental problems while categorically rejecting stricter gun legislation.

President Obama broke through this routine with an emotional speech in which the president expressed his frustration with the latest massacre. One can hear the resignation in his voice when he says, with his lips held tightly together and his frustration very evident: “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine.”

According to the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, it was the 45th mass shooting this year in the United States. The basis for the statistic comes from the FBI, which considers any incident where four or more people are shot at, whether hit or not, to be counted as a mass shooting. By those standards, by day 274 of the current year there have already been 294 mass shootings.

During his speech, Obama predicted the gun lobby would argue that the nation needed more guns and fewer gun safety laws, then asked rhetorically, “Does anybody really believe that?” He urged Congress and the American people both, to think about how to end the cycle of gun violence and mass shootings. Congress is the body to determine the strictness of gun laws and the Republicans currently have a majority in both houses.

He said he hopes and prays that during the remainder of his presidency he won’t have to once more hold a press conference for the purpose of expressing sympathy for the victims of gun violence and their families, but admitted that he couldn’t guarantee it. His term ends a little over a year from now. The chances of his keeping such a guarantee are beginning to look pretty dim.