“Prudent; Rational”
© 2025 by Michael L. Utley

“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”  Charlie Kirk, April 2023

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San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre, San Ysidro, CA, 1984 – 22 dead/9 injured
USPS shooting, Edmund, OK, 1986 – 15/6

prudent; rational

GMAC massacre, Jacksonville, FL, 1990 – 10/4
Luby’s massacre, Killeen, TX, 1991 – 24/20

prudent; rational

Columbine High School massacre, Littleton, CO, 1999 – 13/24
Red Lake massacre, Red Lake, MN, 2005 – 10/5

prudent; rational

Virginia Tech University massacre, Blacksburg, VA, 2007 – 32/23
Binghamton shootings, Binghamton, NY, 2009 – 14/4

prudent; rational

Fort Hood massacre, Fort Hood, TX, 2009 – 13/31
Aurora theater shooting, Aurora, CO, 2012 – 12/70

prudent; rational

Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, Newtown, CT, 2012 – 27/2
Washington Navy Yard shooting, Washington D.C., 2013 – 12/8

prudent; rational

San Bernardino mass shooting, San Bernardino, CA, 2015 – 14/21
Orlando night club massacre, Orlando, FL, 2016 – 49/53

prudent; rational

Las Vegas Strip massacre, Las Vegas, NV, 2017 – 60/546
Texas First Baptist Church massacre, Sutherland Springs, TX, 2017 – 26/20

prudent; rational

Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School massacre, Parkland, FL, 2018 – 17/17
Santa Fe High School shooting, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2018 – 10/13

prudent; rational

Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Pittsburgh, PA, 2018 – 11/6
Thousand Oaks nightclub shooting, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2018 – 12/22

prudent; rational

Virginia Beach municipal building shooting, Virginia Beach, VA , 2019 – 12/4
El Paso Walmart mass shooting, El Paso, TX, 2019 – 22/26

prudent; rational

Boulder supermarket shooting, Boulder, CO, 2021 – 10/0
Buffalo supermarket massacre, Buffalo, NY, 2022 – 10/3

prudent; rational

Robb Elementary School shooting, Uvalde, TX, 2022 – 21/17
LA dance studio mass shooting, Monterey Park, CA, 2023 – 11/10

prudent; rational

Maine bowling alley & bar shootings, Lewiston, ME, 2023 – 18/13
Utah Valley University shooting, Orem, UT, 2025 – 1

prudent; rational

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This is only a partial compilation of mass shootings in the U.S between 1982-2024. These instances refer to shootings with double-digit fatalities (except for the final listing, which was not a mass shooting but notable nonetheless for its irony); there are many, many more shootings not included due to limited space. This list by Mother Jones was used in this piece.

Mass shootings are defined as events in which four or more fatalities occur (excluding the shooter). Recent data from Everytown for Gun Safety shows that since 2015, more than 19,000 people have been killed in mass shootings in the United States (all of them presumably prudent, rational sacrifices, according to the late CK), with more than 686 mass shootings in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The statistics for mass shootings with fewer than four fatalities between 2015-2022 represent 95% of all mass shootings, with 3,533 incidents. The US averages more mass shootings than days in the year.

Giffords Law Center reports that more than 46,000 Americans die annually as a result of gun violence. That’s 125/day on average, with more than 461,000 dead since 2015. The number of guns in the United States totals more than 400 MILLION (population ~345 million). This article by The Intercept show that politically red states exhibit much higher levels of gun violence than blue states, in large part due to political ideology and lax gun laws. And with all the dark money flowing into morally corrupt republican politicians’ coffers from the Gun Lobby, this is not surprising. The GOP has sold its soul to the NRA and repeatedly shoots down (pun intended) any attempts by Democrats to pass common-sense gun legislation to curb gun violence and deaths.

Will these deaths be enough to satisfy those who demand blood sacrifice to protect “god-given” rights to amass vast arsenals of weapons and ammunition to achieve some twisted ideal of alpha manhood? Can any gun death be considered “prudent” or “rational?” What have we become when we glorify violence and bloodshed and vilify those who seek to end the carnage of mass shootings and other types of gun violence?

“One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin