Half Staffs . . . Again. And Again.

UPDATE: This animation has been updated to reflect the mass shooting that happened early Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio.

With the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival followed quickly by the tragic mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, flags are being lowered across the country.

Sadly, I've had to once again update an animation I created first for the Las Vegas shooting and then updated for the mass shooting in San Bernardino.

Senseless gun violence continues – whether in the form of mass shootings using assault rifles or daily killings with guns of all sorts across the country.

Tens of thousands of shootings every year don't even make a blip on the national news cycle – like the man lying lifeless on the sidewalk with a bullet in his chest outside the Mission Street burrito shop I happened to be inside one night several years ago.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 33,004 incidents of gun violence in 2019 . . . so far.

8,715 have resulted in deaths and 250 have been classified as "mass shootings." (The Gun Violence Archive considers an incident a mass shooting if four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.)

This is going to take a lot more than "thoughts and prayers" and hollow platitudes from politicians.