A report cam over the AP wire last night that, if this were any other country in the world, would have been the top news story for days: “Multiple shots were fired inside a northern New Jersey mall shortly before closing time Monday night,” read the opening line of the report and Americans, having been through this drill before, found a cable TV talking head or pieced together facts from the ever reliable twitter and were able to learn, in short order, that a man, described by eyewitnesses as wearing body amour, black leather pants and a motorcycle helmet, was seen walking by Talbots in the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus shooting his riffle into the air. A huge local and state police presence responded the mall went into lockdown and the incident ended when the gunman apparently took his own life in a Footlocker store. No other deaths or injuries were reported. In our post Columbine, post Sandy Hook world, we are so anesthetized to situations such as these that most people barely missed a beat before clicking back to Monday night football, the food network or whatever other implements of temporary distraction you have selected to dull your brain from the pain of the cruel world you inhabit, but enough about me- we are here to talk about Guns in capitol A America!
Truthout