They Shoot, We Fail: America's Mass Shooting Crisis

Every time there’s another shooting, the cycle repeats: thoughts, prayers, outrage… and silence. In this episode, we unpack why America keeps failing to act, how media bias warps who gets empathy and who doesn’t, and why so many people only care when it finally hits home. We dig into the uncomfortable truth about gun violence, selective outrage, and what real accountability would actually look like in a country that’s gotten far too good at looking away.

About your host:
Sonia in Cyber is a multicultural feminist voice, creative entrepreneur, and unapologetic truth-teller. With roots in education, tech, and product marketing, she blends data with empathy, humor with heartbreak, to expose the cracks in America’s “normal.” Through her podcast Somebody Pinch Me, she gives voice to the disillusioned, the outspoken, the overlooked, and the quietly furious — proving that truth doesn’t just survive in chaos; it thrives in it. Her mission is simple: to use her voice to inspire others to keep fighting, resisting, and moving forward — no matter what.

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Episode Transcript

@soniaincyber (00:00):
Today's topic is going to be extra heavy.
And to be honest, before I sayanything else or dive into the
regular episode, let mesummarize my sentiments about
today's topic in a simplequestion: When is it going to be
enough?
When?
Not even a week into a newschool year, and children have
lost their lives due to anothersenseless act of gun violence in

(00:23):
America, in a school, to themost innocent members of our
society.
To those of you still yellingabout 2A, I'm going to say this

as politely as possible (00:31):
Shut Up.
Shut up long enough to actuallyhear the suffering and harm
your selfishness and obsessionwith weapons is causing others.

And to be clear (00:42):
this has never been about you losing your
right to own a firearm, butabout ensuring those who do are
responsible, stable, and not adanger or threat to society.
But I know you know that, sostop pretending you don't
understand what all this fuss isabout.
We're at a point in Americawhere mass shootings are

(01:03):
normalized.
Many of us hear the news, andinstead of being immediately
horrified, our level of horrordepends on the number of
victims, who the victims were,or where the crime happened.
Not that it happened in thefirst place, no matter where, no
matter to whom, and no matterhow many.
Mass shootings aren't breakingnews anymore.
They're background noise.

(01:23):
We scroll past headlines aboutslaughtered children like
weather updates.
We've turned classrooms intocombat zones and teachers into
frontline medics.
Fire drills have been replacedwith active shooter training.
And the worst part, it doesn'teven shock us anymore.
And if that worries you ormakes you sick?
Yeah, me too.
And what's even worse, everytime there's another mass

(01:46):
shooting, especially when ithits schools, churches, kids
– our leaders' first response isoften NOT action.
It's cuts, it's spin, it's thesame old lies, and thoughts and
prayers, for 24 hours, maybe 72hours if we're lucky, and then
it's on to the next thing.

(02:06):
This is Somebody Pinch Me, andtoday's episode, "They Shoot We

Fail (02:11):
America's Mass Shooting Crisis".
Because massacres should not bethe new normal and this
administration's response, it'snot just passive, it's
poisonous.
A shooter opened fire throughthe windows of a Catholic church
during mass at a school inMinneapolis, killing two
children aged 8 and 10 andinjuring 17, most of them kids.

(02:33):
The shooter identified as23-year-old Robin Westman,
posted videos referencingviolent ideologies,
anti-Semitic, and anti-Christianstatements, even the chilling
phrase, "six million wasn'tenough".
For those of you needing theextra context, that's a not-so
hidden reference to theHolocaust.

(02:53):
And sadly, this is not anisolated incident.
It isn't a lone act of madness.
It fits a disturbing pattern.
2023 – the Covenant Schoolshooting in Nashville, three
kids and three adults killed,motivated by extremist hatred
and inspired by past shooters.
2022 – a Missouri schoolshooting by a mentally unstable

(03:14):
young man using 600 rounds ofammo.
He was flagged, but still wasable to get a weapon due to
system failure.
And the list goes on.
Columbine, Virginia Tech, SandyHook, Uvaldi, Parkland, Austin
Clock Tower, Perry High School,and so many more.
Too many.
Each one reflects a culture ofunchallenged access to weapons,

(03:38):
escalating ideology, andpolitical paralysis that
continues to leave schoolsvulnerable.
They serve as stark remindersthat our kids are not safe, that
policy inertia is deadly, andthat normalizing this isn't
normal.
It's a collapse ofresponsibility.
And it's a sign of acontinually spreading cancer in
our society, an ideology andmindset that thrives on fear,

(04:02):
entitlement, and the erosion ofempathy.
Across the country, the patternof perpetrators in mass
shootings, especially school andchurch shootings, reveals a
chilling common thread.
These aren't random explosionsof chaos, they're symptoms of a
deeper rot.
Time and again, we see shooterswho hold white supremacist,
anti-black, anti-Semitic, oranti-immigrant beliefs,

(04:25):
radicalized in online echochambers and far-right circles,
express deep misogyny oranti-LGBTQIA+ hatred, sometimes
linked to incel communities orreligious extremism, including
Christian Nationalism.
Suffer from unaddressed mentalillness, with warning signs
often missed or ignored becauseof systemic gaps in health care,

(04:45):
especially in red states wheremental health services are
constantly underfunded ordefunded altogether.
Are often obsessed withprevious mass shooters, looking
to outdo them to become infamousto make a name through violence
and access to military-styleweapons with ease, even if
flagged previously by lawenforcement, even if their

(05:07):
families knew something waswrong.
They are white, isolated withfringe ideologies.
They write manifestos andsocial media posts praising past
shooters.
Their motive isn't personal,it's always ideological.
They're not victims of gunviolence, they're its faces.
But our leaders treat it like anindividual tragedy, not a

(05:27):
political epidemic.
And while bodies pile up,policies keep churning in favor
of these killers.
As politicians offer thoughtsand prayers, these shootings
continue, not in spite of policyand action, but because of it.
Because certain lawmakersrefuse universal background
checks, loosen red flag laws,vote against mental health

(05:49):
funding, push good guy with agun fantasies while ignoring the
blood on the floor.
This isn't just neglect.
It's complicity.
And it's bigger than just gunviolence.
It's about what happens when asociety lets hatred fester
untreated, when people aretaught to fear others, see
empathy as weakness, and believeviolence is strength.
It's about a mindset that seesweapons as freedom, but human

(06:12):
lives as expendable.
It's about a country whereprotecting the unborn gets more
outrage than protecting aclassroom full of second
graders.
And it's spreading, not justthrough bullets, but through
legislation that restricts truthin classrooms, media that feeds
paranoia and lies, leaders whoscapegoat entire communities for
political gain, and everydaypeople who've become numb to

(06:34):
carnage.
This mindset, it is the cancer.
And if we don't start treatingit with radical honesty,
empathy, accountability, andaction, we won't survive the
metastasis.
Now, for those of you stillstruggling to understand how our
system is enabling thisviolence, here's a few things to
think about.
Looser gun laws and weakenedsmart protections leave

(06:56):
dangerous people free to armthemselves.
No red flag laws in somestates, including Missouri, mean
missed chances to preventviolence.
This administration slammedBiden's $1 billion school mental
health grants, meant to hiremore counselors and
psychologists post-Uvaldi andthe kicker, rural schools and
red states are being hit thehardest with cuts, as we all

(07:17):
warned and predicted, and thingsare just getting started.
This administration also mademajor cuts to local gun violence
prevention and community safetyto the tune of over $800
million, another $1 billion fromthe Bipartisan Safer
Communities Act, meant formental health and violence
reduction programs, and DOJfunding for victims networks,

(07:38):
which include hotlines andviolence intervention programs.
Many try to blame shootings onmental health only while gutting
mental health services andloosening regulations on
mentally ill gun buyers.
And removing social supportslike Medicaid and SNAP,
especially in lower incomeareas, increase gun violence
risk without critical socialsupport in place.

(07:58):
Let's break down one of theNRA's favorite catchphrases, "
guns don't kill people, peopledo".
Sure.
And bombs don't explode ontheir own either.
But when you hand unstable,angry, extremist people easy
access to deadly weapons, whatdo you think happens?
The truth is, yes, people pullthe trigger, but access to the

(08:18):
gun makes that outcome faster,deadlier, and more widespread.
Ask an ER doctor.
A knife wound might besurvivable.
A bullet wound from an AR-15,not so much.
When countries restrict accessto certain weapons, mass
shootings go down.
It's not a theory, it's data.
New Zealand bannedsemi-automatic weapons after the

(08:40):
Christchurch massacre.
Japan, the UK, and Germany allhave tighter gun control laws
and far fewer gun deaths.
Meanwhile, here in the US, ateenager can't buy a beer, but
can legally buy an AR-15.
Let's stop pretending thisisn't a uniquely American
crisis.
Here's the other thing no onewants to talk about.

(09:01):
These mass shooters aren't justangry people with a handgun.
They're often walking intoschools, churches, and grocery
stores with high capacitymagazines, body armor, ghost
guns, modifications thatsimulate automatic fire and
stockpiles of military-stylerifles.
Let's look at just a fewexamples.
Las Vegas Shooter 2017 – had 23firearms in his hotel room,

(09:24):
many modified with bump stocksand over 1,000 rounds of ammo.
He killed 60 people and injuredhundreds more in under 10
minutes.
Uvaldi Shooter 2022 – legallybought two AR-15s and 375 rounds
of ammunition just days afterturning 18.
He used those weapons toslaughter 19 children and two

(09:45):
teachers.
Highland Park Shooter 2022 –used a legally purchased Smith &
Wesson M&P 15 semi-automaticrifle.
Police later found over 80rounds fired in less than 60
seconds.
Aurora Theater Shooter 2012 –had multiple firearms, including
a Smith & Wesson semi-automaticrifle with a hundred-round drum

(10:06):
magazine, a shotgun, and twoGlock pistols.
He was dressed in head-to-toetactical gear.
None of these arsenals are forself-defense.
They're built for war.
These stockpiles are a redflag, not a right.
And yet Republican lawmakersprotect them like holy relics.
They fight red flag laws, blockassault weapon bans, and whine

(10:27):
about tyranny whenever someonesuggests that maybe 18-year-olds
shouldn't have access tobattlefield weapons.

Here's the truth (10:34):
a person with a knife is a threat.
A person with a handgun is moredangerous.
A person with an AR-15 and a100-round magazine can become a
mass murderer in seconds.
The gun is the differencebetween one body and a massacre.
So, yes, people kill people,but guns make it easier,

(10:54):
quicker, deadlier.
And when the laws make iteasier to buy a gun than to get
mental health care, a therapist,or even a driver's license,
that's not just negligence.
That's a system built to enableviolence.
And here's the hard truth thattoo many Americans don't want to
admit – if it hasn't happenedto you yet, it's easy not to

(11:16):
care.
If your kid hasn't had tomemorize hiding spots in a
classroom, if you haven't gottena text that says active shooter
at school, if you've neverwaited outside a police
barricade praying your child isone of the lucky ones, then
sure, it's easy to scroll pastthe headlines, to sigh, to say
it's tragic, and move on.
But what happens when it's yourturn?

(11:38):
When the shooter shows up atyour church, your grocery store,
your child's school, yourblock, when it's your nephew who
never made it out, your niecewith trauma she'll never be able
to shake, your best friend'sbaby on a stretcher.
Will you care then?
Because mass shootings aren'trare anymore in America.
They're routine, and no one isimmune.

(12:00):
Republican lawmakers keep saying"it's not about the guns".
But let's be real, it's neverabout the guns until your loved
one dies from one.
This is not just a policyfailure.
It's a moral failure, acompassion failure, a failure of
imagination.
Because some of you, maybe evensome of you listening, still
think, "this won't happen to me,I don't have kids, I live in a

(12:22):
safe area".
But this epidemic doesn'tknock.
It kicks in the door.
You don't get a warning.
You just get a call, aheadline, a heartbreak that
rewrites your entire world.
So if you're sittingcomfortably because it hasn't
touched you, consider this yourwarning.
Your silence won't protect you.
And when the worst happens,when you're finally ready to

(12:44):
stand up, we'll welcome you.
But don't wait until it's toolate.
The time to care is now becauseevery life we fail to protect
is one life too many.
And next time, it might besomeone you love.
Before we end today's episode, Iwant to invite you into a brief
moment of silence.
For the children who never camehome from school, for the
parents who buried their babies,for the teachers who used their

(13:07):
bodies as shields, for thecongregations shattered by
bullets during worship, for theneighborhoods turned crime
scenes, for the survivors wholive with the scars that no one
can see.

(13:36):
Let this silence echo louder than the excuses.
Let it sit heavier than theempty thoughts and prayers.
And let it stir something inyou – because silence is only
sacred if it leads to action.
This is Somebody Pinch Me– enough already.