What have we become.

[Blue_true]

It is estimated to up to 20 people in El Paso were shot dead earlier today. One witness described a White man in tactical clothing as the killer. Even as disturbing is how print news is treating the shooting. I can find two stories about the death of RFK's granddaughter in my news feed, not one headline story about the shooting.

Are people becoming immune? This morning I was shopping in a grocery store when I heard a yell from in front. Instantly my head wheeled and a fight or flee sensation overtook me. Apparently the person that yelled was frustrated about sonething, not a murderous psycho, in seconds things were back to normal for me.

It just seems that now everytime we step out, being part of a mass shooting should be somewhere in our heads, even if we don't think it is, it is there as I found out this morning. All that is awfully sad and it is made far worse by a president who traffics in hate and creating divisions between groups of people, all for his own benefit.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Agree that latent fear in the general public has increased.

I place the bulk of blame squarely on the Republican Party here, and other right-wing factions world-wide.

This is clearly caused by divide and conquer rhetoric in right-wing media tainted with machoism, racism, xenophobia and misguided religious dogma driven by nefarious plutocrats that want to control every aspect of our lives.

Strange that in reality, we have far less to really fear than most nations in the world. Most of our fear is internally created and self-inflicted, including that of those behind most mass shootings.

Fear begats fear, and worsening fear always creates or worsens mental illness in any population.

KY.....

[Blue_true]

2. You make a lot of good points.

I used to love being among smallish crowds. Today when a crowd is around me, I am literally counting people.

I just wonder whether we are not seeing a wave of mass shootings at big retail operations. The whole thought is scary. Any popular grocery store or whatever can be a target, that causes a sinking feeling.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. At what other big retail stores have recent shootings occurred?

I'm probably forgetting, but the most recent was at a garlic festival. And the worst of all was at the music thing in Las Vegas.

And, as awful as every single one of these things are, as frequently as they occur, the underlying problem is the guns. The fucking guns. NOT stores or festivals or schools. It's the guns.

Take them away entirely.

But no, someone else's right to shoot up a mall or a school or whatever is apparently more important than anyone else's right to continue living.

[Blue_true]

4. The one today and earlier this week was done at busy Walmarts.

Maybe it is just me, but I can see other busy, well known retail places being targets. To the murdered, it seems to be about finding a large enough group of people.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. They don't have to go to retail stores to find groups of people.

Churches have worked very well in the past.

And while I don't want to downplay the horror, keep in mind that both in actual numbers and in percentages, only a very few people are shot, whether wounded or killed. What I'm trying to say is do NOT let this incident, or any others, keep you from shopping or going to church or a theater or a concert or whatever.

[Blue_true]

8. Your points are rational. But people are not always rational, even ones that are most of the time.

When we are walking across a parking lot or are at a market, there is no desire to be assaulted, we are at our weakest defense at that time, that is why I think people put that fear into their heads.

I pretty much accept that I can be doing a routine errand and end up in a location of a mass shooting, because of that I find myself unavoidedly casing places, figuring out where to go in case of an emergency.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. The pattern I notice is...

that shooters most commonly have externally-induced rage toward some "other" whether it be race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion or social status and typically an untreated mental issue allows the fear to explode in violence. The people most vulnerable appear to be minorities, LGBT persons, non-Christians and immigrants and so their gathering places are most often attacked.

If we can somehow eliminate or substantially reduce those sources of fear mongering, improve unity in our communities and boot up improved mental health treatment, that could go a long way toward eliminating many of these events.

[Blue_true]

6. We certainly are not going to make the progress defined by your

last paragraph under the current president. In fact it could take decades to undo the evil that he is bringing about. And it all boils down to millions of Americans and how they think, Trump did not happen in a vacuum and I can promise you that the next time we have a woman, Black, Brown or Asian person as our President, the tea party, with all it's hatreds, will crop right back up and start it's bull again.