The Oregon Shootings and the Media Routine

People take part in candle light vigil following a mass shooting

at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon October 1, 2015.

Photo by Steve Dipaola/Reuters

The latest in America's string of mass shootings happened yesterday when a lone gunman killed nine people and injured several others on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg Oregon. Today, the Sheriff said 13 weapons have been found, all of them legally purchased by him and his family. Yesterday, President Obama mourned the victims and lamented that the response to these mass shootings has become routine.

Professor Danny Hayes, who teaches Political Science at George Washington University, has more on the reasons why.