Blood on the Streets of Dayton Ohio

Jesus GODDAMNED Christ. We can't go to sleep without bloodshed in our country. Woke up this morning to news about Dayton, Ohio (via Chas Danner at New York):

Nine people were killed and 26 injured after a gunman opened fire in Dayton, Ohio’s nightlife district early morning Sunday. It was the second deadly mass shooting in America in less than a day, and third in less than a week.

Dayton Police officials announced that an as of yet unidentified gunman opened fire on bystanders just after 1 a.m. outside of Ned Peppers Bar in the city’s historic and popular Oregon District. The gunman was wearing body armor and came armed with a .223-caliber “long gun,” high capacity magazines, and extra ammunition. Police officers already present in the area immediately responded to the attack and fired on the shooter, killing him at the entrance to the bar. The attack seems to have lasted only about a minute, but that was more than enough time for the well-armed gunman to exact a heavy toll.

At this point, SYRIA or YEMEN are safer places to live. Our national body count is exceeding that of HONEST TO GOD WAR ZONES.

And to all the sonsofbitches out there who fantasize about "Good Guys With Guns" being present to stop the "Bad Guys With Guns," you got your wish: Police were in the area and responded as quick as possible. IT STILL WAS NOT FAST ENOUGH TO SAVE NINE PEOPLE. The gunman was still prepared with body armor, high-capacity magazines (which means less effort to reload), and extra ammo.

It is still too early to report on what motivated the murderer besides 1) anger and 2) easy access to military-grade firepower. No idea if Ned Peppers was specifically targeted or just the first one the sonofabitch wanted to shoot up.

But we're now at the point in the escalation of mass shootings in the United States to where these mass shootings are overlapping.

Used to be a mass shooting every year.

Then it got to be a mass shooting every month.

Then we got normalized to the reality of a mass shooting every week.

Here we are today, where the mass shooting of one day hasn't even been cleaned up before the next day's mass shooting hits the news channels.

All this in a world where any other sane nation would have passed strict gun regulations for public safety after the FIRST mass shooting. But this is not a sane nation, is it?

In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over. - Dan Hodges, reporter

We live through one mass shooting after another and muddle on through our lives just praying we don't get stuck in one ourselves. And we can't avoid that anymore: We're getting reports about survivors from last week's Gilroy Garlic Festival having survived the mass shooting of a Country music concert in Las Vegas a few years ago. This is now getting so common that survivors should be issued discount cards for each incident they get through. And this is NOT the first time I'm making this observation!

JESUS.

Welcome to the NRA's wet dream: non-stop mass shootings that are certain to keep gun and ammo sales ongoing for the rest of our nation's short-lived future.

We need to pass a law requiring the board of the National Body Count Association to dig the graves of every victim of a mass shooting, for two reasons: First, if the shedding of OUR blood is the price WE have to pay for the gun nuts to own their murder-sticks, then digging our graves is the least THEY can do for us; and Second, at this rate the NRA needs to learn how to work at graveyards because at this rate they will be the only ones left to bury the rest of us.

Goddammit, America.

We are killing ourselves one shooting at a time.