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Another mass shooting has turned some corner of an American city or town into a scene of terror and chaos, and the death toll — one is too many — has been splashed across newspaper pages in double-size font. One publication appears to capture the frustration and futility felt by so many people. Not fake news, not exactly real news, but something else: the satirical outlet the Onion.
The publication saw one of its largest days of online traffic ever, according to a spokeswoman. One of its most popular articles of the day was an article that it first published about a mass shooting more than three years ago: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens’ reads the headline of the piece.
The site republishes the article after mass shootings, changing only the dates, the location of the violence, and the number of individuals killed. The article’s latest iteration drew a flood of attention after a 64-year-old gunman killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 others at a country music festival in Las Vegas. It was shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook and Twitter, and drew thousands of comments about its merits as a piece of commentary.
The repetition seems to underscore the tragedy of what the article implies could be a solvable problem: that mass shootings are a regular facet of life in the United States.
Read the full article by Eli Rosenberg about mass shooting from The Washington Post