After Vegas shooting, we are speechless

Like many of you, we struggled on Monday morning to find the right words.

Our hearts are heavy with grief for those impacted by the events that unfolded in Las Vegas, marking the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

We were speechless over the many lives lost, and also because we have been here before.

We are heartbroken that we are here, again, grappling with a mass shooting.

We now live in a time where a mass shooting has unfortunately gone from an isolated incident to a horribly normal occurrence.

A shooter attacked the Route 91 Heritage Festival just after 10 p.m. Sunday.

The shooter, who once lived in Dallas-Fort Worth, opened fire on festivalgoers before being found dead by what police have said is a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino hotel room.

More than 500 were injured, at least 59 dead at presstime for this page. It’s being called the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

As we read articles, watch footage from the scene and look at the pictures of the massacre, a heavy, sinking feeling weighs on us. We are reminded that this massacre will most likely not be the last.

Innocent people died for some unknown and inexcusable motive. And the Las Vegas shooting will most likely be eclipsed by another massacre.

We hope we are wrong. But the last five years doesn’t leave us feeling we’ll be right.

We can’t dismiss this massacre as if it is the first. But we also can’t treat it as if it’s any less than a horrific, heartbreaking attack that should never be repeated.

Later Monday the conversation transitioned from “thoughts and prayers” to gun control and/or mental health — two easy and frankly knee-jerk reactionary topics.

We have time for these conversations. Now is not the time to make political points.

Now is the time to donate blood, to send thoughts and prayers to the festivalgoers and friends and family. To help where we can.

Let’s work on the immediate need. The long-term discussion is important. And it will come.

This violence can’t keep happening.

We must stop believing this will be the last time, the last wayward shooter, the last massacre.

We can’t just let these attacks spark these conversations and then let them fizzle out because time passes without a mass shooting.

Better protection at major public events — reducing mass gun violence — needs to be a constant conversation in both political and social spheres.

But first, we must mourn the tremendous loss experienced by hundreds, if not thousands, of victims’ families.

This story was originally published October 2, 2017 at 5:06 PM with the headline "After Vegas shooting, we are speechless."