The mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine is the latest example of a uniquely American phenomenon. But there is hope, progress we are making, in the face of tragedy.
On Wednesday, a gunman killed at least 18 people and injured at least 13 in a series of shootings in Lewiston, Maine. As of this writing, the gunman is still at large and the community in and around Lewiston has been urged to shelter in place, with many businesses and schools closed. The shooting is the latest in a country where such tragedies have become sadly routine. There have been over 560 mass shootings in the US so far this year. Over 35,200 people have been killed by guns, and over 30,600 have been injured by them in 2023. Mass shootings this year include a shooting in Goshen, CA, which killed six people, a shooting in Monterey Park, CA, which killed 11 people, and a shooting in Half Moon Bay, CA, which killed seven people.
Mass shootings touch the lives of those who had previously, like most of us, looked at the gun violence epidemic from the outside. And yet these mass shootings all are part of a long-term, familiar dynamic, a broken status quo we have not yet been able to fix. Over the past decade we have heard an increasing drumbeat of “thoughts and prayers” from politicians, a growing outcry on social media, and yet we continue to have more gun violence deaths and injuries than ever before, punctuated by periodic mass shootings that penetrate the public consciousness. And so, again and again, we search for words that can find meaning, that can shift our thinking. But perhaps there is little new to say, because the arguments have been made, and what is left is for us to act. I went back and looked at what I have said over the past eight years about the topic, since becoming dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. And in many ways what I have said over time still holds today, all of it. The headlines, the stories, are the same. We have been living these stories over and over.
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