These are the people representing us? We. Are. Fucked.

what else are they going to say? they believe the guns have nothing to do with it.

Weird how Republicans demand all kinds of action and policy changes after an attack in Paris but after attacks here it's always stay the course. When Americans are killed it's just a normal part of life but the killing the French lights a fire under them.

And yet we still call it a democracy.

Maybe those evil assholes' prayers will be answered after tomorrow's mass shooting, or the one after that, or the one after that.

What are they praying for anyway? Oh right--more mass murders and more NRA cash.

Very rough calculations leads us to <$600 a life.

We've had 351 mass shootings so far in 2015 (>=4 people killed)
351*4 = at least 1404 people killed.

The NRA purchased $810,462 worth of influence in 2014 (couldn't find data for 2015 in 3 minutes of searching so...).

$810,462 / 1404 = $577

And this thoughts-and-prayers nonsense comes from the people who have no thought process whatsoever.

@9: bingo. the same lack of though leads to tripe like "everything happens for a reason".

no. no it doesn't.

@6: You're mixing definitions here. There have been 351 incidents where 4+ people were shot, but not where 4+ people were killed. The FBI uses the latter definition, while media outlets have been using the former recently.

@Sean Nelson: C'mon, you're gonna post neat provocative shit, but then not allow comments? Weak. I mean first off, you're factually wrong about prayer: patient prayer is effective in improving outcomes, so that substantially contradicts your point about the inherent moral value of it. I'd have loved a post about how prayer can replace action, but that's not what you gave us. You gave us a facile "imaginary friend" critique of religion, ignoring all the good which has been done by religion and faith. There are people whose faith empowers them to make better decisions and do more good, and there are atheists who are complete fucking racist assholes (Richard Dawkins, Bob Maher).
You may be an atheist, but you aren't skeptical enough.

It's San Bernardino. What, it hasn't been in the news enough for you to spell it correctly?

I hear so much about the republicans' reactions to these mass shootings (in MY news feeds at least) but very little about Hillary Clinton. Obviously, I can find out her response(s) with some quick Google searches but it just strikes me as odd considering she is almost unarguably the inevitable pick for POTUS in 2016. I don't expect anything to change with her since she's already part of the establishment, but it seems like her opinion would matter most considering she'll be one at the reins.

California has strict gun laws but not as strict as France. Looks like Islamic radicals planning attacks will get whatever weapons they need. Maybe we should concentrate on keeping them out of the US or monitoring them like sex offenders.

@11:

Please cite the peer-reviewed studies correlating prayer to improved outcomes.

@15:

Throw White, male, racist Christian radicals in that pool and I might be able to agree with you.

@11 and @17, actually patient outcomes are decreased in patients who are prayed-for. But, I agree that Sean's article needs to have a comments section.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health…

It's not about the money that is given; it's about the hanging threat of giving money to a primary challenger instead. The NRA is able to wield such control over Republicans because they know that if they cross them and vote for anything sensible on the issue, they'll have a tough time getting re-elected. They never seem to have the balls to call that bluff, and it is somewhat of a bluff because the NRA doesn't have the money to do that in every contested race.

Matt, I'm curious about the amount of money the NRA has actually given these politicians. Because $1,000 hardly seems like a persuasive amount of money, especially when these politicians are dealing with millions of dollars. I wonder if they aren't reporting all of the contributions from the NRA? Or if some of the contributions could be classified as something under some kind of donation that they don't legally have to report?

"Thoughts and prayers -- when you care enough to do the very least"

At the barbershop today the talk turned to gun violence. I have to remember that old-fashioned barbershops in low-income areas are not necessarily bastions of progressive thought. It would have been nice, though, if at least one customer had spoken up against every damn citizen's need to buy as many assault weapons and get as many concealed carry licenses as possible before the libruls come to take away our guns, etc. Glad I only get my hair cut every six weeks -- a daily dose of that would definitely raise my blood pressure.