The Haunting Normalcy of Mass Shootings

October 1st will mark a year since a young man shot and killed eight fellow-students and a professor at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Oregon. I learned about the unfolding events as we so often do these days—on social media. Over the next two days, I witnessed the cyclical conversation that seems to happen every time a mass shooting occurs. The first reaction is shock and horror, followed quickly by demands and pleas that something be done. Not long after, the finger-pointing begins. The conversation reaches a fever pitch and then, silence—until the next mass shooting takes place.