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On the fifth episode of S4 of the cartoon show BoJack Horseman, a group of people say solemnly: "The recent [mass shooting] is so sad...Thoughts and prayers!"
It's a glib utterance, played for comedy. The idea, of course, is that this is so common in America that politicians have a standard playbook: the same toothless utterances they repeat every time it happens. Instead of actually doing anything (such as passing gun control laws that would make it harder for people to get guns), they would prefer to fall back on meaningless utterances that cost nothing to say.
When mass shootings occurred in countries like New Zealand and Australia, leaders of state moved quickly to curb access to guns - and it worked. Nowhere else in the world does the unrestricted right to buy assault weapons exist, which is why the children in other places are far, far less likely to die from mass shootings.
If so-called pro-life politicians in the US wanted to make children safer, they could focus on gun control (instead of, IDK, abortion rights). After all, it’s surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of fatalities in the US. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/22/1094364930/firearms-leading-cause-of-death-in-children
But they don't want to. They have never wanted to: a truth BoJack Horseman illustrates beautifully. They would rather say "Thoughts and prayers."