Rachel Maddow Reacts To Arizona Shooting: Gun Massacres Happen Too Often To Be 'Unimaginable' (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow began her first show after the shooting in Arizona by raising a tough question: how will the next one be prevented?

She started by running through a long, painful list of some of the mass shootings that have occurred in America since the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was born 22 years ago. After reeling off over a dozen different incidents, Maddow turned to the words that are often used to describe them, such as "unimaginable."

"It is hard for anybody to find the words to express the horror and the anger and the grief that are the only rational responses to massacres like this," she said. "But the one thing that events like this are not, in America, now, is inconceivable or unimaginable."

She noted that the list she had read was only a partial one, that the United States is by far the most heavily armed country in the world, and that roughly 82 people are shot to death in America every day. And she said that the question on peoples' minds right now should not be whether political rhetoric contributed to the Arizona shooting, or what Loughner's motivation might be:

"Whether political rhetoric motivated this kid or not, whether this kid was sane enough to process political rhetoric as sane people understand it or not, whether we will understand sooner or later or never the motivation behind this kid...here's the question: do we have any tools to stop the next gun massacre?"

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Comments

[Paul Grimyser]

02:16 PM on 01/15/2011

Rachael Maddow seems to be a voice of reason (for the left), and I love that she is smart enough to research her positions instead of using inflamatory language to make a point.

[WendyPinNJ]

12:47 PM on 01/15/2011

I can always rely on Rachel to give clear, concise, succinct information. She's intelligent, passionate and thoughtful. Watching this video made me consider that "we," as a nation, seem to be incredibly dense. It seems like we will never realize what a mess we've gotten ourselves in to with guns in this country.

Sure would be nice if the "founding fathers" were around to clarify things. I highly doubt THIS is what they had in mind.

[Pharoah Narim]

09:59 PM on 01/12/2011

That is true Rachel but allow me to offer a different reason than the obvious. Psychopaths have burning anger against society and anonymity which they feel society has forced upon them. Their violent outburst takes care of the chip against society and the media frenzy ends the anonymity. I believe we unknowingly encourage the very behavior we wish to discourage with they way we react to the aftermath of these events. Unknowingly setting the table for the next nut who believes everyone should know who they are.

[wikwox]

07:15 PM on 01/12/2011

Stop the next gun massacre? No, probably not. Guns are hyper avaialble in this country, thier cheap and everywhere. The real question is how long until the next one, not if.

[morganplains]

02:54 PM on 01/12/2011

Once again Rachael has done her homework and brought insight and information to the forefront that needs to be considered. There is no one of her equal broadcasting daily. Keep it up. I learn something every night.

[Scouts]

02:50 PM on 01/12/2011

Re-listened to your editorial ... just needed a few moments of clear thinking.
Thanks again for your journalistic excellence.

[HeartT]

12:56 PM on 01/12/2011

Rachel, I watched the past two nights and if a viewer really wanted facts and truth about guns in our culture, you delivered. No name calling, no judgements, just facts and truth based on research that provided this viewer the information I needed to form MY position on guns and America's inability or unwillingness to deal with the issue.
Thank you for being a real journalist and not just a gossip peddler.

[Reggie Licious]

12:40 PM on 01/12/2011

What's happening in this thread? There have been 400+ comments pending for hours now!

[PresidentRobertBooth]

11:35 AM on 01/12/2011

Gun massacres are the price America pays for having relatively unrestricted gun laws.
 
The Columbine killers, the Virginia Tech killer, the Arizona shooter
 
 
All demonstrated mental health problems, yet were able to acquire weapons.
 

[LCDTV]

09:25 AM on 01/12/2011

"do we have any tools to stop the next gun massacre?""

do we have the will? the nra does recognize that we have a problem with guns. there answer is more guns. that means more citizens that are more incline to do wrong will have access to guns. gun accidents also happen. the nra logic is "use gasoline to put out a fire."
also history proves to the nra their logic is wrong.

as long as we let the nra think for us and tell us what to do, we will not have the political will to curb gun deaths and woundings.

[Loobie]

08:58 AM on 01/12/2011

Once again she is the voice of sanity when compared to Chris Matthews, et al.

[rstewart3]

08:02 AM on 01/12/2011

"She noted that the list she had read was only a partial one, that the United States is by far the most heavily armed country in the world, and that roughly 82 people are shot to death in America every day."

I am not sure where Rachel Maddow gets her statistics from, but they are almost triple what the actual statistics are. According to the FBI's Expanded Homicide Data, here are the breakdowns per year of total firearm deaths, with an average of per-day deaths (total / 365):

2005 - 10,158 (27.8 per day)
2006 - 10,225 (28 per day)
2007 - 10,129 (27.7 per day)
2008 - 9,528 (26.1 per day)
2009 - 9,146 (25 per day)

Even if you took 2009's total murders, 13,636, the average number per day of people murdered only comes out to 37.3. Not even half of the number that Ms. Maddow is claiming. In order to reach Ms. Maddow's average, we would have to see a murder rate of 29,930 per year. And, quite frankly, the statistics just do not support her argument. Even if we double the murder rate of 2009, it would only come out to 27,272, still over 2,000 short of her statistic.

I'm sorry, but Ms. Maddow is doing nothing more than trying to get her moment in the spotlight out of this tragedy.

source: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_08.html

[M Cubed]

08:15 AM on 01/12/2011

She was talking about all deaths by guns, which fit the 80 per day number. Suicides make up the largest number of gun-related fatalities in the US.

http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNSTAT.html

[Reggie Licious]

08:27 AM on 01/12/2011

You are talking homicide, Ms. Maddow was talking deaths by firearms, which would include accidents as well. There's one statistic here which has a roughly (very roughly) similar homicide count for 2006 as you are citing, but way more deaths due to accidents with firearms: http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNSTAT.html

Be careful who you are accusing of wanting a spotlight when maybe the lady was simply right, just looking at different data than you were.

[mollysmomma]

07:13 AM on 01/12/2011

Great job,as usual, Rachel !

[rain33]

06:51 AM on 01/12/2011

bravo work rachel! it's too bad that the right is only focusing on violence and hatred against politicans and citizens. bravo rachel!

[rstewart3]

08:10 AM on 01/12/2011

Don't applaud too loudly. Her math is wrong.

[Roger Lakins]

02:36 AM on 01/12/2011

Great job! Rachel has the ability to do the detailed homework and give the findings to an audience to draw their own conclusions. She is a wonderful, educational and passionate journalist!