Did you know there’s no mushroom cloud emoji? No whimsical cartoon symbol for destruction, chaos, and violence. No way to shorthand text someone looks like the whole world blew up, maybe we should just take a step back.

Gee, can’t imagine why I would’ve been looking for that…

Shocking nobody, gun violence is at the top of the list of things happening this week in America. Well, not so much this week as all the time. America is gun violence, gun violence is America. This is where we are. This is where we’ve been for years. People have gotten right with it so the level of shock on display since Charlie Kirk was shot is, quite frankly, confounding.

We actually have a tracking website for mass shootings. This one lists five mass shootings since Sunday. It doesn’t include the school shooting in Denver on 9/11 most likely because the body count wasn’t high enough to qualify.

I’m certain my readers from other countries are appalled we make the distinction.

At any rate, I took a break from social media when the outpouring over Charlie Kirk’s death reached peak levels. Quite simply put, people lost it. I suppose if you consider Charlie Kirk a shining star or a leader in your community then his shooting will impact you differently.

Charlie Kirk is not a leader in my community. I do not believe the things that he clearly and repeatedly went on record as believing. He is not my hero, so I processed his death as I’ve been trained to process shootings.

It was another act of gun violence in America.

Since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre did not move the needle on gun control we’ve been told repeatedly that the second amendment is sacrosanct and gun violence is simply a fact of life here. Charlie Kirk himself espoused that philosophy. In April 2023: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

The right to bear arms was a cause he believed is worth dying for. That those deaths are unfortunate, yes, but necessary to the process. It seems those who loved Charlie Kirk do not believe he should personally have to pay that price. Other deaths have been acceptable losses but this one is a bridge too far.

Now we’re being told if we aren’t lamenting his loss that we’re heartless, we’re cruel, we’re not Christian. Some will feel this post alone “celebrates” his death because I say he isn’t my hero.

How people feel about me is quite literally none of my business. I will say today, as I’ve said after every shooting, maybe this is the one. Maybe this is the death that will sway people to believe wide open gun access isn’t worth the price.