My mind is a bit preoccupied today.

As I said on FB, I was on a school tour this morning when the shootings at Sandy Hook occurred. Two days ago I was also on a school tour, sitting in a cafeteria and listening to the principal of a school in the hills state bluntly in response to a school safety question, "if someone is determined to commit mayhem there's nothing we can do to stop them."

She meant "we" as a school. Not "we" as a community. As a society. As a country. As part of the world. I think that there might be a couple action items we can take outside the school walls, before once again someone walks into an elementary classroom and opens fire on kindergartners.

Or shopping mall patrons.
Or U.S. congresspeople.
Or moviegoers.
Or office workers.
Or ad nauseum. Literally. Thinking about it too long today makes me queasy.

And yet I think it's going to be on my mind for a while. I don't have any finger-wagging to engage in or grand pronouncements to make here. I'm more shaken up than I should be, perhaps, but still, I am shaken.

Some relevant links:
Mother Jones: A Guide to Mass Shootings in America.

The Atlantic: The Geography of U.S. Gun Violence
(Because mass shootings are "just a sliver" of gun violence in the U.S. as a whole)

Wonkblog: Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States.

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