Graph Shows the Grim Reality of Our Tolerance for Gun Violence
EndFragment
Sunday morning's attack at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida, left 50 dead, including the shooter, and 53 wounded — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
But while it left the world stunned and illustrated to some an even more pressing need for action on gun control, time has shown this sense of urgency will eventually wear off.
According to a Google Trends graph put together by ThinkProgress, the interest in gun regulation has remained steadily low over time, with small spikes following the San Bernardino, California, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook massacres.
As time passes, though, these spurts of interest flatten out until the next tragedy strikes:
To quantify "interest," ThinkProgress used Google Trends to research how often people used the search engine to search the terms "San Bernardino," "Virginia Tech," "Sandy Hook" and "gun control" and measured the results against time.
As ThinkProgress noted in its report, the largest increase in concern over gun reform came with 2012's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed the lives of 27 victims, 20 of them children. At the time, the tragedy spurred legislation to expand background checks which was swiftly thwarted in the Senate.
EndFragment