Thwarted D.C. attack yields 'change for me, but not for thee' response.

By J. Basil Dannebohm

Between 1999 and 2025, there were an average of 6 active shooter events in U.S. K-12 schools per year. As of April 27th, there have been 151 mass shootings in the United States in 2026, killing 178 and wounding 559. Since January 1st, 2013, there have been 7,171 mass shootings in the U.S. (Sources: Mass Shooting Tracker and Gun Violence Archive)

Of the few mass shootings that manage to capture the brief attention span of the public, the general response, particularly from the political right, is not one of outrage. Rather, these senseless tragedies are met with milquetoast, hollow and meaningless oblations of "thoughts and prayers," calling upon the Almighty to "heal our land."

In the hours following the incident in Washington on Saturday evening, DC Shadow* Senator Paul Strauss said, "I got a text from my young daughter who had been in active shooter drills and was giving me instructions on what to do."

Young people realized long ago that our elected leaders weren't going to make schools safer. Instead, students train for worst case scenarios like members of the armed forces being sent to battle.

In quick time since that incident at a hotel in our nation's capital, where members of the media and politicians adorned in black-tie were gathered, a battery of measures have been ordered. Over the next few weeks, there will be congressional hearings, briefings in the West Wing, and high level meetings at the DOJ, DHS, and FBI. The media who were in attendance will regurgitate their account of the event ad nauseam.

Rather than "thoughts and prayers," there has been a demand for action and calls for a sense of urgency in the construction of a $350 million dollar ballroom.

Whether or not Saturday's incident at the White House Correspondents Dinner was real or an elaborate orchestration is frankly irrelevant. The fat-cat demand, "change for me, but not for thee" should outrage all of us.

Yet it probably won't.

We're a nation of blissfully mindless sheeple who obsess over celebrity sports figures, reality television stars, musicians, and narcissistic grifter politicians. If something happens to a golden calf who sits high atop our cults of personality, we issue battle cries. Yet, when vulnerable school children hide under their desks and "the least of these" run for their lives, we change the channel in search of the latest score or to find out who's the most recent contestant to be voted off the island.

(*Shadow Senator is a distinction given since the District of Columbia is not a state.)