Front Page News

Our local paper had an extraordinary front page today.

We're only a few days removed from the savagery of the mass murders in Connecticut. But even as victims are buried and politicians pledge to do something, that horrific case barely made page one – because we've got yet another case of mass murder on our hands.

It appears to be what, in America, is an all-too-common, garden variety mass murder-suicide. Some asshole with a violent streak shot his estranged girlfriend and two others and then killed himself.

Apparently the girlfriend left the man who would become her killer on Thanksgiving day. He was jailed this past weekend on domestic violence charges, the victim being the estranged girlfriend. He got out on Monday night. Around 4am Tuesday he went to the home where the ex was staying and killed everyone.

Grislier details include the fact that the murder of the girlfriend and the suicide were both recorded in a frantic 911 call. The dispatcher heard the woman's futile pleas, heard the gunshot that killed her, spoke briefly to the killer – and finally heard him kill himself.

As tragic and sickening as all of this is, some asshole murdering his girlfriend or wife and then killing himself is all too common an occurrence in these loosely united states. You barely need to pay attention to know that.

The reason it all seems so extraordinary to me is that beneath the front page article about this murder-suicide is an article about those friendly, responsible chaps at the National Rifle Association vowing, or at least pretending to vow, to do something about the availability of assault rifles, in the wake of Connecticut. That, and a third front page article about the governor of my fair state also making noise about doing something to stem unstable people getting easy access to guns. This, in a state that experienced the Aurora shootings last summer and the Columbine High School murders in 1999.

There's been much talk and much media attention about all this since the slaughter in Connecticut. It remains to be seen how much of it is sincere, and how much is public relations. Clearly it is the duty of elected officials to listen to the will of the people, and to enact laws that increase public safety.

Meanwhile, our national bloodbath continues.


Pressure them!