Struggling to make sense of a seemingly senseless tragedy, on-air anchors and their studio guests tried to fill time with speculation, hyperbole and sound that did little more than intensify the massacre's impact.
Early on, we were assured that there was no apparent connection to terrorism — that this involved a “lone wolf” assailant. Of course, the overwhelming majority of mass shootings have nothing to with “Islamic extremism,” as President Trump likes to call it. However, invoking the “T” word (even to rule out a terrorism link) does little more than empower our enemies. They don’t even have to lift a trigger finger to stoke our fears.
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The Las Vegas shooting is hardly unprecedented. Fifty-one years ago, for example, a sniper at the University of Texas-Austin similarly targeted innocent people from a porch high above his chosen killing field until first responders arrived to overtake him.
The Las Vegas attacker killed more victims, but perhaps it is communication technology that hit us with more force than his bullets. A half-century ago, Americans heard about events in Texas only through news bulletins and eventually rough footage once the film was available. With smartphones in everyone’s pockets and purses, we are able to hear and see such events as they unfold.
Just how many times must we be mistreated with the recorded “rat tat tat” of gunfire? Sure, this instance is different in that the gunman might have had access to a fully automatic weapon capable of streaming bullets with the single squeeze of the trigger. But anyone who has ever watched a war movie or an episode of The Untouchables can recognize the sound. Hearing it over and over only deepens the horror.
And how many times must we be reminded that this was the largest mass shooting in modern American history? A CNN anchor pointed out that the Pulse nightclub shooting spree was the largest until now.