The US, Mass Shootings, and Why There's No Progress

A friend from college posted that she didn't even know there had been a school shooting yesterday. It wrecked her, that it's becoming so common it's barely a blip on our radar anymore. She asked if there were any charities set up, legit ones, so she could send help. A few people responded. Some of us sent what we could spare, mostly to the local charities that were trying to help. We're in NY, where we have the SAFE act, one of the stricter gun laws in the nation that an Australian would laugh their ass off at and pat us on the head for, for our minimal effort.
And then another friend posted an alt-right meme that stated that the only reason things like this happen in the US, is because we aren't hitting our kids enough, like we used to. The site it came from is sponsored by white supremecists, and wants to have the SAFE act repealed. He didn't know this, because he only shared it because the meme gave him a comforting statement, that it's not his fault, and that he shouldn't feel bad about smacking his girlfriend's kids if they step out of line.
Not that he'd do anything like that, of course.
He doesn't have a gun, but he really wants one, since they live out in the country, but he can't get the rifle he wants, because of "the damned SAFE act". It's infringing on his 2nd Amendment rights, after all.
I've tried to bring up the history of the 2nd Amendment, particularly Alexandra Erin's easy-read history of how the 2nd Amendment came about, but he wasn't interested. That's like... 15 tweets. He's got shit to do. He'll look at it or something... later.
And I ask myself if he even cares. If any of the people who shared, liked, loved, and ha-ha'ed that meme do.
At the end of the day, though, it's this. They don't care. Not here, not in FL, not anywhere in the US, really.
They.
Don't.
Care.
They want a big rifle that will fuck up some hypothetical boogeyman that apparently is going to break into their house, despite the fact that veterans think those weapons are overkill in a domestic situation. They want a .45 or a .50AE that they're going to hold wrong, with an extended mag because it looks fucking cool and if some "bad guy" appears they will, despite being so ungodly unqualified, believe that they will be the hero, get famous and rich. They want a shotgun that'll blast a hole in the wall, and a hi-powered rifle "for hunting" when an off-the-rack 30.06 will kill a deer just fine. Because those people getting shot aren't their friends, or family, or anything. They're just names and angry shouting people to roll their eyes at.
They will never run out of things to blame for why it happened. If they're not white? It's because "that's how those are". If they're not Christian? It's because they were terrorists.
If they were white? It's the music they listen to, the movies they watch, the games they play, the clothes they wear, their parents hit them too much, or likely, not enough. It's not because of the groups they associated with, the militias, the hate groups, the people who make a sick mockery of our military, it's because they were lone wolves. Isolated incidents.
Mentally ill.
It's nothing that will ever happen to them. Statistics mean nothing, not when they can feel right and righteous. So they'll find something else to blame, but never a gun. Never the ease of access to them. Because after, all. They are not like that. They wouldn't do such a thing. Thoughts and prayers when it happens. (I seriously doubt a single one of them has actually prayed on this) And if it does happen? Well, they aren't like that. Those who do it? Those people were just crazy. An anomaly. An aberration.
So they don't have care.
Ever.
So it's up to us to care.