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[h=4]Voices: Our apathy about gun violence is staggering[/h]Despite frequent episodes of mass murder, U.S. shows little appetite for dealing with the problem.
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USA TODAY talks to bystanders on the scene of the San Bernardino mass shooting. Jefferson Graham reports. Sean Fujiwara, USA TODAY
University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Police Chief Brian McPike, left, stands with other officers during a moment of silence for fallen officer Garrett Swasey before a college basketball game Nov. 28, 2015. Swasey was killed in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs the day before.(Photo: Christian Murdock, The Gazette, via AP)
COLORADO SPRINGS –<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Standing amid<span style="color: Red;">*</span>yet another community shattered by gun violence, I'm left with the unshakable belief that Americans are actually OK with it.
How else can we explain the lack of a broad-based outcry to Do Something when it comes to men with guns killing their fellow citizens? How, in the wake of yet another mass shooting Wednesday –<span style="color: Red;">*</span>this time in San Bernardino, Calif.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>–<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>explain that even as the president calls for reducing gun violence,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>we buy more guns?
Sure, some politicians and activists will make the same perfunctory calls for background checks and maybe restrictions on high-powered rifles. Others might make a nod toward incrementally better mental heath care.
But other politicians are already saying that Planned Parenthood maybe brought a shooting<span style="color: Red;">*</span>upon itself, and that you can't really ever stop a determined man with a gun without getting rid of all guns, and we're never going to do that.
As many of my friends point out, even in countries with virtually no guns, such as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Great Britain, gun deaths still occur. The first mass shooting I ever covered took place in Dunblane, Scotland. It remains the worst.
USA TODAY
Clinic shooting unlikely to bring major shift to Colo. gun laws
Friday's shooting at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs is the second mass shooting I've covered in two months for USA TODAY. I was in Roseburg, Ore., in the hours after a young man killed nine people in his college classroom. And earlier this year I watched as jurors decided to spare the life of James Holmes, who killed 12 people in a suburban Denver movie theater in 2012 –<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a shooting that I began covering just hours after his gunshots ended and tears were still falling.
USA TODAY
Ore. community struggles to comprehend shooting deaths
Last year, I walked among<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the stunned Fort Hood community in Texas as it grappled with the deaths of three soldiers and the wounding of 12 others at the hands of an Army specialist who then killed himself.
Covering all of those shootings brings to mind a bitingly accurate headline from the satirical news site The Onion: "'No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens."
USA TODAY
James Holmes formally sentenced to life in prison
When word came Wednesday of the San<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Bernardino attack, President Obama had some strong words for the situation. "Some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can't get on planes," Obama said. "But those same people who we don't allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm and there's nothing that we can do to stop them."
USA TODAY
At least 14 dead in San Bernardino shooting; no motive known
An<span style="color: Red;">*</span>exasperated Obama has said before that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he wants to do something, but he's focusing on using an executive order, rather than persuading Congress to act. He knows lawmakers don't really want to change anything.
"This is not normal," the president says of gun violence.
Respectfully, I disagree.
Our country was born in armed revolution only a few hundred years ago, and the link between an armed American public and the success of that revolution is clear. We made it even clearer by writing into our country's founding documents that we have a God-given right to our guns.
And by God we love them.
As my colleague Nick Penzenstadler reported earlier this week, federal officials conducted more than 185,000 background checks on Black Friday, reflecting gun purchases that were happening even as a man shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>killing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a cop and two other people during a five-hour standoff.
USA TODAY
Black Friday breaks record with 185K gun background checks
Guns are an integral<span style="color: Red;">*</span>part of American culture and life, and the vast majority will never harm anyone. As a society, however, we've accepted that some guns will kill innocents.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who knows well the toll that gun deaths take on innocents, says he's not ready to give up trying to reduce them. He argues that empathy is a cornerstone of democracy, and that if we don't care enough about innocent strangers being gunned down to actually change anything, well, "we've got a real problem."
But I'm not sure Americans really see gun violence as a problem. Polls show that while slightly more than half of Americans say they want stricter limits on gun sales, it sure doesn't feel like the majority of us really want to do anything differently.
We've simply accepted, as a culture, that innocents will die every day to protect our way of life. It's the price we pay to ensure no one will ever take this country by force.
And it's a cost we are clearly willing to pay.
Hughes is a Denver-based reporter for USA TODAY. Follow Hughes on Twitter @trevorhughes
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Bystanders react to California shooting | 00:34USA TODAY talks to bystanders on the scene of the San Bernardino mass shooting. Jefferson Graham reports. Sean Fujiwara, USA TODAY
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Calif. police: Shots fired, suspect down near SUV | 01:04Aerial video shows massive police activity in San Bernardino, California. Police say one suspect is down. It was not immediately clear whether the incident is related to a mass shooting that killed at least 14 earlier Wednesday. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Worry, confusion for families after Calif. shooting | 01:08As many as three gunmen believed to be wearing military-style gear opened fire Wednesday at a Southern California social services center, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than a dozen others, authorities said. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Police chief: 14 dead in Calif. shooting | 01:45The San Bernardino, California chief of police says at least 14 people were killed and at least 14 more were injured in a mass shooting at a social services center. Police were still searching for as many as three gunman. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Obama: 'We have a pattern now of mass shootings' | 01:52President Barack Obama is calling Wednesday's mass shooting in Southern California part of a pattern of shootings in the U.S. that "has no parallel anywhere else in the world." (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.San Bernardino Police search for suspect after mass shooting | 00:33Officers in San Bernardino, Calif., responded to an active shooter situation. Multiple people are dead and injured.
Video provided by Newsy Newslook
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Mass shooting reported at California Social Services facility | 00:41Police in the Southern California city of San Bernardino were responding Wednesday to reports of a mass shooting at a social services facility. USA TODAY
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Raw: Victims treated in Calif. shooting incident | 01:33Aerial video shows victims being treated and taken to ambulances following reports of an active shooter situation in San Bernardino, California. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Police respond to active shooter in Calif. | 00:56Police in San Bernardino, Calif. were responding to reports of an active shooter at a social services facility. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.San Bernardino County Sheriff confirms active shooter | 01:40Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton reports that there's an active shooter near Orange Show Rd. and Waterman Ave., the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a tweet, citing the San Bernardino Police Department. Bloomberg
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.Emotional dad: Daughter 'hiding' from shooter | 01:23Relatives describe hearing from loved ones from inside a social services facility in San Bernardino, California where police are responding to an active shooter. (Dec. 2) AP
MASS SHOOTING IN SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.'Moment of Silence' at DC Tree Lighting | 00:49The mass shooting in California has intruded on a normally festive event in Washington - the annual lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree. (Dec. 2) AP
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