After latest mass shooting, Bill Belichick sends "thoughts and prayers" to Maine
On Wednesday night, the latest mass murder by assault rifle happened in Maine. Patriots coach Bill Belichick opened his Friday press conference by acknowledging the situation.
"Just start by sending our — from the team, players have talked about this, captains yesterday, too — sending our thoughts and prayers to the people in Maine. It’s obviously a tragic situation. They’re great fans of ours, great friends up there and Maine is a great place. I feel bad for the pain and situation that they’re going through. You know, Lewiston and Bowdoin, a lot of connections and a lot of my friends went there. I know the area pretty well, it’s very sad and difficult. So, we’re thinking about you down here at the Patriots. . . . It’s kind of like the Connecticut situation a few years back, not the same, but it’s just sad, tragic, and sounds like it’s not over yet."
It's not over yet, in part because it never ends. It's one of the risks of living in America and leaving your house. It's just one of the ways that a person can die, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a public place.
There's a difference between car accidents, lightning strikes, or whatever else can happen to kill you when you're not at home and death by weapon of war. This specific risk entails the possibility that someone who is: (1) mentally ill; and (2) nevertheless able to purchase and own one or more assault rifles has decided to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and as brutally as possible.
Nothing ever changes. It's one of the biggest problems of our broken and warped political system. Our dysfunction has created dystopia.
But we deal with it. We deal with it because what other choice do we have? It's not a significant risk. It's still a very real risk. And it's an avoidable risk. We simply lack the will as a people to eliminate it, because we continue to elect people who refuse to do it.
If we had a problem with man-eating tigers getting loose and killing American citizens, we'd solve it without hesitation. We'd solve it without hesitation because there's no man-eating tiger lobby bankrolling politicians who will say in a calm, measured voice that it's not appropriate to address the man-eating tiger problem in the immediate aftermath of a man-eating tiger eating a lot of men, women, and children.
