I owe you an explanation.
Today’s article was to be a fairly brutal indictment of Congress for failing to address bump stock legislation. There’s a lot to explore here, and a fair amount even the best-informed average citizen might have missed.
On reflection, I’ve decided to delay it at least a week. There are two reasons:
(1) The original article is harsh and super-critical of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike. While I still hold to these views, as a country, we’re angry enough. Above all else, I do not wish to increase our national level of hatred even a little. If I do publish this piece, it should be well-reasoned and calm, informative, persuasive, and with a positive message.
And right now I cannot write that article. I wish I could, but I can’t.
(2) Sunday’s shooting in Texas was horrific. It deserves respect, time to mourn, awed silence from the rest of the nation. Not long ago, there was another attack in New York City. One of the things I deplore both about our elected representatives and the news media is the positive delight they show in profiting from these outrages. For me to write a persuasive piece at this time would be to become like they are.
I’ll leave you with a thought from a few years ago: We now have evidence supporting the long-time speculation that increased media coverage of a violent event will encourage similar events. The Guardian explained the study convincingly here:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/01/media-coverage-terrorism-further-violence
For those of you who are details-minded, here’s the original paper:
The Not Fake News 