Save Some Outrage for Gun Violence

Wall St. malfeasance is a crisis—but so is shooting epidemic
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 12, 2009 10:06 AM CDT
Save Some Outrage for Gun Violence
A member of Oakland Police Honor Guard stands at his post near the four caskets of four Oakland police officers who were shot in the line of duty.   (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, Pool)

We look back at witch hunts and slavery with shame and consternation, but after reading about our recent spate of gun violence, future historians will regard us as similarly misguided, Cynthia Tucker writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “These mass shootings are a form of madness, but what’s even more insane is our passive reaction,” Tucker says.

Americans kvetch over Wall Street greed and salmonella-laced peanut butter, but they twiddle their thumbs while neighbors are gunned down. “If these attacks were the work of foreign-born terrorists, President Barack Obama’s poll numbers would be in free fall," Tucker writes. "But attacks by Americans on fellow Americans are met with public indifference and official cowardice.”
(More guns stories.)

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