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Where Things Stand: A Return To The Other Very American Problem

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DAYTON, OH - AUGUST 5:Samuel Klug, L, and John Neff place candles around a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting in the city's historic Oregon District where Connor Betts used an "AR-15-like" rifle about 24 hours earlier to kill nine people, including his sister, and injure 27 others, on Monday, August 5, 2019, in Dayton, OH. Neff's friend is one of the 27 people injured, shot through the hand. "I've never been through something like this before," Neff said. "This is pretty painful. I don't have kids, but I would hate to be feeling what a parent is going through right now. This is awful." He added, "I don't think thoughts and prayers are going to protect us anymore. I don't think they ever have. We need some gun laws that are going to protect us, and protect our husbands and wives and kids. I think we need people in power that are going to protect our future. If we continue to let this happen, who knows if we're going to have a future." The attack came less than a day after a man with a high-powered weapon killed 20 people in El Paso, Texas, and a week after a gunman killed three people and wounded 12 at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post). — DAYTON, OH - AUGUST 5: Samuel Klug, L, and John Neff place candles around a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting in the city's historic Oregon District where Connor Betts used an "AR-15-like" rifle abou... DAYTON, OH - AUGUST 5: Samuel Klug, L, and John Neff place candles around a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting in the city's historic Oregon District where Connor Betts used an "AR-15-like" rifle about 24 hours earlier to kill nine people, including his sister, and injure 27 others, on Monday, August 5, 2019, in Dayton, OH. Neff's friend is one of the 27 people injured, shot through the hand. "I've never been through something like this before," Neff said. "This is pretty painful. I don't have kids, but I would hate to be feeling what a parent is going through right now. This is awful." He added, "I don't think thoughts and prayers are going to protect us anymore. I don't think they ever have. We need some gun laws that are going to protect us, and protect our husbands and wives and kids. I think we need people in power that are going to protect our future. If we continue to let this happen, who knows if we're going to have a future." The attack came less than a day after a man with a high-powered weapon killed 20 people in El Paso, Texas, and a week after a gunman killed three people and wounded 12 at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images). MORE LESS

April 19, 2021 1:02 p.m.

The pandemic has brought to a head the complexities of one very uniquely American problem: the emphasis we as a country put on individual freedoms, which, this past year, has repeatedly run headlong into the need to care for our fellow man during a global health crisis.

It’s also revealed in new ways a more depressing American problem: mass shootings.

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