This morning, I was out running errands and I turned on the radio to hear the news that there were three dead in a shooting at a mall in Columbia, Maryland. Any number of things could have first come into my head as I heard he news. Shock. Horror. Sadness. Those came a little later, but my first reaction was:

Of course.

Of all the emotions, complete and utter resignation was the first to hit the surface. Of course there was another shooting.

There might be a few halfhearted attempts to restart the discussion on keeping guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, but it won’t go any farther than that – it never does.

I know all the reasons it never goes anywhere, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about any of it.