One such death in October 2008 and another in August 2014. Almost six years apart. I'm sure Mac would have told us about a more recent shooting if he had found one.

While no such death is acceptable, the very reason that this is news is that it is so unbelievably rare.

We've watched enough TV cop shows to have this subconscious belief that stuff like this happens every week. After all, they have a new show every week, right?

IT IS RARE. It is deplorable. It is horrible. But it is news because it is news, and thank God for that. Let's not react to either story without also reacting to the rarity of them. Let's not call for new gun laws or other things to avoid the two times in six years in a nation of three hundred million people that such things happened. You want to lobby to outlaw something dangerous, outlaw automobiles! Go nuts over peanuts being available to the general public!

I just located a story of a death caused by a slippery sidewalk. That makes sidewalks only half as dangerous as Uzis, and you don't even have to have supervision to use a sidewalk!