Our fear of mass shootings impacts our minds in surprising ways

You’ve all heard this take: Each school shooting in America, no matter how horrendous the carnage, eventually fades into the last one

- Mary Sanchez

The 1999 Columbine High School Massacre that left 13 dead seems to be where most people’s awareness begins.

And of course, Virginia Tech (2007) with its 32 victims, and then Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012) in Connecticut-where 26 people died, which came before Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida (2018) with 17 deaths and Robb Elementary School (2022) in Texas where 21 died.

Add Covenant School in Nashville (March 27, 2023) with six more victims onto that ever-growing list.

Despite it all, the sense is that, as a nation, we simply do not have the attention span to sustain us toward better answers on gun violence. Not enough of us stay engaged long enough to insist on the type of bipartisan action necessary to disrupt the Republican genuflection before the Second Amendment.

Instead, unless we are personally involved, the details of each incident will fade with time until another act of mass carnage interrupts.

But a new report has shed light on the effect of all this bloodshed on our mindset. It’s piling up in substantial ways.

As a country, we’ve managed to become both hyperaware of the potentially deadly consequences of firearms; and yet also befuddlingly naïve to basic facts about how guns are affecting American society.

Here are some stats from an April 11 survey conducted by KFF, a nonprofit that focuses on healthcare research: