Mass shooting grips Virginia Beach; thirteen dead

Has it become too normal?

As I scanned the headlines tonight looking for a story, the headline “Thirteen Dead” didn’t ping very hard.  At least, not hard enough.

I was numb.  I was unable to fully grasp the gravity of the situation.  Thirteen people were no longer living after what we could only assume was the ranting and raving of a crazy person.

When these things happen anywhere in the world they are disparaging.  When they occur in America, land of the right to bear arms, they are downright unnerving.

A longtime city employee shot and killed 12 people and injured at least four others after opening fire Friday afternoon in the public works building, making it the country’s deadliest mass shooting this year.

Police said officers killed the man, whom they did not name, after he fired at them in the city’s scenic Municipal Center in Princess Anne, a campus of about 30 brick Colonial-style buildings.

The four injured were all in surgery Friday, Police Chief James Cervera said during a news conference a couple of hours after the massacre.

One officer was shot during the exchange but was saved by his bulletproof vest, the chief said.

While many modern day shootings are stereotypically spurred on through bullying and other adolescent malfeasance, this particular story looks to be an unfortunate case of an ex employee going “postal”.