For me, Sandy Hook was the moment I realized we aren't going to collectively do anything about gun violence.

They don't become numb. They already are, for quite some time.

Worked with a Gen-X woman when we came into work and heard about the latest mass shooting. Another millennial and I responded fairly flatly: "another one huh?" She expressed some sadness that we were so jaded, that it's just what we grew up with as normal.

Become numb?

Too late man.

When I visited the Netherlands, there was something I felt that I couldn't really find the words for at the time. It was a lightness, that upon stepping off the train and embarking down the steps to Amsterdam proper, my soul just felt light.

Later on, I'm in a weed cafe when an American couple walk in. The man walks towards the back restroom after making a purchase, leaving his significant other at the counter. She smiles with her whole body, and says loudly, perhaps louder than she realized, "you don't have a gun!" she laughs, "I feel safe!"

And that's what it was. That lightness. When we arrived, unbeknownst to us, the burden of thought that surrounds you in the U.S. where every chance encounter could lead to a violent death, where every supermarket or corner store holds within it the potential for a mass shooting. This ever prevalent threat of gun violence that surrounds us everyday, we get used to it. So used to it, that when we find ourselves somewhere without it, the feeling of peace and safety that accompany this loss is felt in your soul.

But you don't realize it's there until you feel what life can be without it. Tally it up as just another burden we carry, beholden to gun manufacturers. The toll is not just in the loss of life, but also the loss of peace within ourselves and our communities.

We keep trying, but the courts and legislatures are packed with 2A nutters who believe that "a well regulated militia" means there shouldn't be any restrictions on gun ownership.

Hold up. There's an enforcer? The fuk has they been doing all these years?

It's chilling talking to Americans about gun violence.

They are well past any early desensitization.

And they definitely accept gun violence as a prevalent part of their lives.

Citizens from other countries are truly horrified if you posit the idea if a mass shooting to them, especially involving children.

American responses range from "look, the thing is...bullshit false rationalization they don't understand" to "I know, it's fucking bullshit!" followed by a shake of their head and a shrug of their shoulders.

Those are the extremes. Usually it's just an exasperated sigh.

May? There long since stopped being enough outrage to do anything about it. We’ve been numb to it a long time

Too late

May?

The US is a failed shithole nation. Another mass shooting? Thoughts and prayers, what's for lunch?

Yes the violence is everywhere, gun violence and just aggressive natural attitudes that make life terrible. To the people that always say "well I don't have that type of crime/gun violence/issue, it's way exaggerated", well you're wrong. You literally have become numb to it because it is everywhere.

I find it as good development. When we stop writing about each shooting in all newspapers, discussing it on TV 24/7, filling internet with it, only then those nutjobs stop considering mass shooting as something that can be done by them too to shock others.

The ATF wants us to become numb to burning children to death.

People I once could say I respected became cold way to fast. It is even shown in many other parts of their life. I always hope they can find the way back to who they were. But I feel like it will take a long time. But I will not give up trying to hold my ground on trying to do the right thing. Remember many will become dull to the world but as long as some of us hold on and show them their is a better way. We can keep hope alive.