Have you read Paul Constant’s feature on gun culture in the United States? You should because it’s great. Sample:
Because mass murder in the U.S. always arrives wreathed in statistics like a professional sport, CNN reported we’ve seen 73 school shootings since the ghastly Newtown massacre in December 2012. A few days later, CNN corrected itself, claiming there have been 15 school shootings since Newtown. Where’d the other 58 shootings go? CNN deemed them unofficial because they “included personal arguments, accidents and alleged gang activities and drug deals,” rather than garden-variety madmen. Because those other wounded and dead students don’t count as victims of gun violence if their shooter had an understandable motive. Because gun death somehow doesn’t count if it’s an accident.
The whole thing is here.
Paul is an editor at The Stranger, the best damn (and Pulitzer Prize-winning!) alternative newsweekly in the United States. The Seattle paper, which is editorially directed by the legendary Dan Savage, also have the best blog of any alternative newspaper on the continent — and it’s ON this blog that Paul mentioned his Prairie Dog feature:
Every so often, I try to explain American politics to the good Canadians who read Prairie Dog, a great alternative weekly up in Regina. In this week’s Prairie Dog, I maybe overstep my bounds as American explainer. I try to offer them some advice on gun violence.
Thought you guys might like to see your silly little indie fish-wrapper get some love from a major alt paper in a major-ish U.S. city. I was pretty tickled. Hugs all around!
