No. 46 of 108

July 29, 2025

A lone gunman entered a Manhattan building and killed four people and critically injured another before taking his own life. It was the ___ (numbers differ; some sources say 205th, some say much higher) mass shooting in 2025 in the U.S. Nearly 80% of mass shootings are conducted by lone gunmen. As in this case, 85% of mass shootings are conducted with assault weapons. Governor Hochul reiterated her call for an immediate nation-wide assault weapon ban. New York, where the shooting took place, restricts assault weapons. Nevada, where the gunman obtained and transported his weapon from, does not. Trump offered his condolences. “I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence”.

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Motives matter, and they do not. Violence is violence. That it happens with such regularity means it has become normal. Should it be? No! Is it? Pretty much. Normal does not mean there is nothing to figure out, to do, to prevent, to interrupt, to reverse a trend and have fewer and fewer and fewer. What does it mean to be a citizen in a country that values the right to a weapon over the lives of people? This, in the scheme of the universe, is not normal. Casually arising violence by individuals, groups, nation-states is a measure of the decline of humanity. The violence itself, and civil society’s response to violence. As governments struggle on all fronts, reversing the decline of humanity is an evolution left to humanity.