Numb?

Today, three people died in Colorado in shooting incidents at a church and mission.

DENVER (Reuters) - Three people were shot to death and six were wounded in Colorado on Sunday in two church-related shootings in the U.S. Christian heartland.

A gunman — described by an eyewitness as dressed in black, wearing combat boots and holding an assault rifle and at least one handgun — wounded four people when he opened fire in the parking lot of the vast New Life evangelical church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after Sunday services, police said.

A New Life church security guard shot and killed the gunman before police arrived on the scene, Colorado Springs police chief Richard Myers told a news conference.

Police did not identify the gunman. There were about 7,000 people in the building when shooting erupted, a pastor said.

In an earlier incident, 70 miles away, a man who entered a Christian missionary training center in the Denver suburb of Arvada with a handgun killed two young missionaries and wounded two others shortly after midnight, police said.

The Arvada gunman, also dressed in dark clothing, fled on foot in the snow.

Police in the two cities said they were sharing information but declined to say whether they thought the attacks were related. There was no indication of motive in either case. link

Which fact is stranger about this story? That someone would kill people at a missionary training center or that a church has an armed security guard?

Last week, a teenage gunman walked into a shopping mall and killed eight people.

A man dressed in camouflage and armed with a rifle opened fire among holiday shoppers in an Omaha department store Wednesday, killing eight people, wounding at least five others and sending hundreds into terrified panic.

The 19-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found on the third floor of the Von Maur at Westroads Mall.

It was the deadliest shooting spree in Nebraska since Charles Starkweather’s 1958 rampage.

Witnesses described the carefree sounds of holiday music suddenly punctuated by rapid gunfire shortly before 2 p.m.

They related horrific scenes: multiple people gunned down in the store’s customer service department, others on a floor below shot as they were looking up an escalator toward the chaos.

“The shots wouldn’t stop,” said Von Maur shopper Carol Padon.

The shooter was identified as Robert A. Hawkins. Witnesses at the mall described the gunman as having a military-style haircut, wearing a camouflage vest and a black backpack and carrying a rifle. link 2

Worst shootings in modern U.S. history

Blacksburg, Va.
April 16, 2007
33 dead, 20 wounded, Virginia Tech campus. Gunman killed himself

Kileen, Texas
Oct. 16, 1991
24 dead, 20 wounded, Luby’s Cafeteria. Gunman killed himself

San Ysidro, Calif.
July 18, 1984
22 dead, 19 wounded, McDonald’s Restaurant. Gunman killed by police

Austin, Texas
Aug. 1, 1966
17 dead, 31 wounded, University of Texas Tower. Gunman killed himself

Littleton, Colo.
April 20, 1991
15 dead, 23 wounded, Columbine High School. Two gunmen killed themselves

Edmond, Okla.
Aug. 20, 1986
15 dead, 6 wounded, Edmond Post Office. Gunman killed himself.

Atlanta
July 29, 1999
13 dead, 13 wounded, Atlanta brokerage offices. Gunman killed himself

Jacksonville, Fla.
June 18, 1990
10 dead, 4 wounded, GMAC Office. Gunman killed himself

Red Lake, Minn.
March 21, 2005
10 dead, Red Lake High School. Gunman killed himself

Louisville, Ky.
Sept. 14, 1989
9 dead, 12 wounded, Standard Gravure Corp. Gunman killed himself

San Francisco
July 1, 1993
9 dead, 6 wounded, Pettit & Martin Law Offices, San Francisco, Calif. Gunman killed himself

Nickel Mines, Pa.
April 16, 2007
6 dead, Amish schoolhouse. Gunman killed himself.

Source: Violence Policy Center.
(Note: Death toll includes shooter or shooters.)

What I noticed was the response by many Americans after the Iowa shootings. Nothing. Even on there was no discussion of the shootings. Why it that? After Virginia Tech was the Iowa mall body count too small to merit our attention?