Overnight, we learned that someone went into a bar in California and opened fire. The count now sits at 13 dead, including a law enforcement officer, and no explanations.

Taking a life is something that, under normal circumstances, is incredibly taxing on the mind and soul. To open fire and want to kill multiple people without rational cause is the sign of someone who is mentally unwell – a fact that we are seemingly constantly reminded of these days.

Fox News put this out this morning, and it is the most telling statistic of all.

U.S. Mass Shootings
– 10+ fatalities

•Apr 1998 (Columbine) to Jun 2012: 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞

•July 2012 (Aurora) to Sep 2017: 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

•𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝟒𝟎𝟑 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬: 𝐒𝐢𝐱
-Las Vegas (58)
-Sutherland Springs (26)
-Parkland (17)
-Santa Fe HS (10)
-Pittsburgh Synagogue (11)
-CA bar (12) https://t.co/LQxJZA9Onm

— Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) November 8, 2018

What else has gone on in the last 403 days that could cause multiple people to feel as though they are compelled to take lives on such a scale?

Maybe it’s the constant demonization of people who disagree with an idea or politician. Maybe it’s the people in positions of authority, or who just get a lot of airtime, telling others that violent behavior is okay or refusing to condemn evil when they see it. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re now okay actively hating people we disagree with.

The last 403 days? They’ve been filled with increasingly erratic behavior from all sides, with no one stopping along the way to think that this division might be bad for the mental health of the country.

Instead, we have people like Nick Kristoff, who want to score a political point, ignoring the fact that California has some of the most restrictive, arbitrary, and Constitutionally-questionable gun laws in the country.

13 dead in a bar shooting in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Dozens more injured. Folks, these kinds of incidents don't happen in normal countries where there is some reasonable regulation of firearms, starting with universal background checks https://t.co/56JBaax7Os

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) November 8, 2018

Something is wrong with us, and it’s not gun culture or the number of guns we as a nation collectively possess. It’s about the fact that we are so quick to dismiss acts of evil in favor of a political point and so willing to dismiss these acts as anything other than a mental instability that the vast, vast majority of gun owners do not have.

It’s about the fact that we are so inclined to hate each other now, and that this has been normalized by our politicians and our media. We are no longer seeking the good in people, and we are dehumanizing in order to make ourselves feel better.

The natural result of all this is that life has no value. The 134 victims of major shootings Fox named in the tweet above were not seen as people by their shooters. If life were valued and humanity respected, we wouldn’t see this.

But, instead, the hatred and division are going to continue to be pushed by our supposed betters, and people will feed off of it.