When I first saw the headline for this piece on social media, I thought it was Babylon Bee spoofing big modern media:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kyoto Animation arson killings didn’t get much attention because we couldn’t demonize guns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure enougb, it’s an actual USAToday editorial<\/a>, about the Kyoto Animation Studio mass killing -= which involved arson, not guns, so the American media snoozed it out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The limited attention here in the United States\u00a0cannot be explained away on account of distance. Compare the coverage with\u00a0that of\u00a0the mosque shootings last March in Christchurch, New Zealand<\/a>, a location even farther from our shores. U.S. newspapers and wire services featured the Christchurch massacre five times\u00a0as much as the Kyoto mass murder.
Sure, there are some differences between the two tragedies in term of victim count and motive. Thursday\u2019s attack involved a\u00a0personal agenda<\/a>\u00a0rather than a political one \u2014 never raising the dreadful specter of terrorism. The Kyoto massacre may not\u00a0have been an act of terror, but the young victims undoubtedly experienced tremendous terror as the flames swelled around them and smoke invaded their lungs.\u00a0
Mass shootings remain one\u00a0of the most widely discussed topics here in the United\u00a0States. By comparison, we just don\u2019t seem to be as unnerved by mass killings carried out by other methods, unless of course they hint of terrorism, be it of foreign or domestic origin.
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