Thoughts for the Day, May 24, 2022: 42 dead and counting in mass shootings this year.

Question of the Day:  At what point are we going to say enough is a enough and do something to prevent it, or are we just going to accept it as a way of life in the twenty-first century?  

With our broken mental health system and the ease at which it is to purchase firearms in this country what happened in Uvalde, Texas will continue to happen in this country.  Nothing will change until we elect politicians who care and are willing to do something.

I cannot imagine kissing my child goodbye in the morning and then finding out six hours later that I will never see my child again. Unfortunately, that is what 20 sets of parents are facing this evening after the shooting at Uvalde, Texas. Sending your child off to attend school should not be something that a parent should have to worry about. Unfortunately, it is something that is becoming and more common in our country. Fifty years ago, an active shooter was unimaginable in a school. Now it has become so common that students, teachers, principals, and staff take annual active shooting training as a precaution to save lives.  No community or school district is immune to this. It can happen anywhere or anytime. 

After today’s shooting 20 families will be forever changed.  No holiday, birthday, or other major family event will go on without the families mourning the loved one they lost today.  Dinners will never be the same.  Vacations will never be the same.  Nothing will be the same for the 20 families today who have lost a family member today.  It must be even more devastating when it is a child that is so young and so innocent. 

When all the publicity is over with and the press and citizens find something else to cover or protest about, the victim’s family of any murder is going to be stuck putting back the pieces of their lives that now has a big hole in it. As Leah and I know it is a hole that doesn’t go away even after 45 years after the murder of a family member.

Please say a prayer for the families of the victims in today’s shooting.  Their lives will never be the same.

After today’s mass shooting in Uvalde Texas, where 18 children and 2 adults are dead, we now have 9 incidents with 42 dead and 213 injured in mass shootings in the U.S. since January 1, 2022.  I will continue to update this chart with each new incident.

May 24, 2022	Uvalde, Texas	20	13	29	Robb Elementary School shooting: Fourteen children and one teacher were killed and multiple people were hospitalized during a shooting at Robb Elementary School.[9]
May 19, 2022	Chicago, Illinois	2	8	10	Magnificent Mile shooting: Two people were fatally shot and eight others were critically injured in a shooting near a McDonald’s restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.[10]
May 15, 2022	Laguna Woods, California	1	5	6	Laguna Woods church shooting: One person was fatally shot and five others were injured in a shooting at a church in Orange County, California.[11]
May 14, 2022	Buffalo, New York	10	3	13	2022 Buffalo shooting: A shooter who was clad in body armor, opened fire at a Tops supermarket, killing ten, including a security guard, and wounded three others.[12] The gunman specifically targeted African-Americans and was influenced by similar terrorist incidents in Charleston, Pittsburgh, New Zealand, Poway and El Paso.
April 17, 2022	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	2	13[n 2]	15	2022 Pittsburgh shooting: An early morning shooting at a party held at an Airbnb rental property in the East Allegheny neighborhood killed two juveniles and wounded eight others. Five people sustained injuries such as broken bones and cuts when they jumped out windows to escape the gunfire.[13]
April 16, 2022	Columbia, South Carolina	0	14[n 3]	14	Columbiana Centre shooting: Nine people were injured by gunfire at the Columbiana Centre mall, while five more were injured in evacuation accidents.[14]
April 12, 2022	New York City, New York	0	29[n 4]	29	2022 New York City Subway attack: Ten people were shot when a gunman opened fire on a New York City Subway train as it approached the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood. Immediately before the attack, the assailant donned a gas mask and threw smoke bombs. The incident caused 19 others to be injured as they fled. The attacker fled the scene and was arrested after police received a tip-off after a 30-hour manhunt. He was identified as 62 year old Frank James.[15][16]
April 3, 2022	Sacramento, California	6	12	18	2022 Sacramento shooting: A shooting in downtown Sacramento killed six people and injured twelve others. [17] Three suspects were arrested the next day. [18]
February 19, 2022	Portland, Oregon	1	5[n 1]	6	Normandale Park shooting: During a racial justice protest, a man confronted a group of protestors and engaged in an argument with them, before pulling out a gun and opening fire, killing one and wounding four others. One of the people in the group returned fire and wounded the perpetrator.[19]

Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence?  Get vaccinated and get your booster.

Quote of the Day: “What are we doing?! What are we doing?“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate — why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority — if your answer is that as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for our lives, we do nothing? What are you doing?”  Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”  Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut on the floor of the U.S. Senate following today’s mass shooting.

Orchid of the Day: No Orchid today.

Onion of the Day: The shooter in Uvalde, Texas

Video/Song of the Day:  https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1529215874808197120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529215874808197120%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Flive%2F2022%2F05%2F24%2Fus%2Fshooting-robb-elementary-uvalde