So, we add Charleston, S.C. to the mounting list of places where a gun pierces through the veneer of civility that American citizens attempt to portray to the world that we really are a peace-loving people.

We’ll do what we’ve done after Columbine, Aurora, Newtown, you name the place. We’ll drop our heads in sorrow, muster anger at the suspect, assure ourselves that he is the isolated problem, then move on to the next manufactured controversy, whether it be a woman blurring her racial identity or who’s marrying whom or who’s gay.

Because that’s what we do. We declare that the latest mass shooting is a one-off, that the fact that a person can just as easily buy a gun and ammunition as they can order a hamburger at the local drive-thru isn’t a symptom of a uniquely American sickness.

Think not? Here’s a link to a blog post about the a newspaper ad that ran today. The sticky note, like the ones that often come attached to the newspaper these days, is for a gun show. Know where that ad ran? On the front page of the Charleston Post and Courier.

Yes, that Charleston. The one where the shooting just happened. Hell, the senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, the guy who wants to be POTUS, has 12 guns. Why? Because 11 isn’t enough.

No other civilized nation in the world is like this. And you can stop trying to find another one, because you can’t. The president said as much.

And if you are trying to still trying to rationalize, consider

This is the 14th occasion President Obama has had to speak to the nation following a mass shooting. Let that sink in.

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) June 18, 2015

To be sure, there are other elements of the Charleston shooting to be dissected, and they will be by me and by sharper minds than mine. But, for me, for now, the issue is guns and coming up with some sane way to regulate them. Anything else isn’t worth talking about.

And, for the record, as you can see below, I’m not unfamiliar with guns. I grew up in an area where hunting was a rite of passage. My brother, the guy with the glasses, is a superb marksman to this day. He owns more than one gun, but he only fires to hunt and not for sport.

I apologize for the pants, but those were the 70s, a time, I might add, when we didn’t have such gun issues.