School shooting an afterthought on same day activist shot dead

On Wednesday, multiple news stations broke into regular afternoon programming to report on the shooting death of a political activist in Utah. There were a lot of discussions about political violence, the rhetoric being tossed around by politicians and influencers, the usual comments about thoughts and prayers, social media with the same comments and law enforcement determined to hold the shooter accountable. Flags will be flown at half-mast.

And then, while watching the evening news, the second story — after the Utah shooting — was about a shooting that occurred at a school in Colorado. Three children were injured. The coverage of that was minimal compared to the story in Utah.

When did we become so desensitized to school shootings? Why don't news stations break into programming to report on those shootings? Maybe if school shootings were reported on the way these other shootings are, the "powers that be" would finally do something. Our next generation is being murdered at school. Why are we OK with five year olds having to learn "active shooter drills?" This is truly unacceptable.

Julie Schultz

Marion