Another mass shooting, this time in a California bar, and again reporters and commentators and politicians call the slaughter of humans by guns senseless. Senseless? I think not. It makes sense to me for the following.

1. It makes sense because of our country's long-standing love of guns and our tendency to solve disputes by violence, instead of compromise.

2. It makes sense because of the ability of too many people to acquire too many guns for no rational reason.

3. It makes sense because we have become used to mass-gun shootings in schools, malls, concert venues and other public places, just normal events in the U.S.A.

4. It makes sense because we have become numb to the daily one-at-a-time gun killings of citizens all around the nation that, now and then, for a 30-second segment on the local news, we might hear about.

5. It makes sense because we (not just Congress, but all of us) do not have the nerve or interest or stamina or attention spans to address objectively how this issue, in all its complex and interrelated, but (I hope) solvable ways might be able to be addressed.

Senseless? No. Understandable and fixable, if we want to do something substantive. It appears that we're not interested. 

Frank T. Francisconi Jr.

New London