Roll of Tragedy
A Mass Shootings Database, if you dare look
Mother Jones magazine recently published a U.S. Mass Shootings Database for the years 1982-2019, which is available as a downloadable spreadsheet. (Google the magazine name and the name of the database; you can’t miss it.) The spreadsheet includes dates, locations, number of dead and wounded, as well as details of each killer’s age, weapon, known mental health status, and more. The spreadsheet column describing each murderer’s mental health troubles ought to move the faithful Christian’s heart toward pity for these tormented men. Of course we pray first for the innocent victims. Then we can spare a prayer for those souls who were clearly in torment on this side of the veil and are most likely in torment in the afterlife.
A perusal of the database — there are 114 entries — can’t help but force a meditation on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. May God have mercy on all the innocent dead, on all those guilty of the gravest mortal sin, on our nation, and on all of us.
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