Shame on Our Routine Response

Of course, enacting reasonable gun measures would not have stopped all of these. Still, you tell the parents of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, killed in Tucson, Arizona, that limits on oversized ammunition magazines are not justified; Jared Loughner got off 31 shots before being stopped when he paused to reload.

"We are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses or want to do harm to other people," Obama said. "We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."

Australia, which adopted sweeping anti-gun laws in response to a 1996 mass shooting, had 1.4 gun homicides per million people in 2012, Vox.com reported. Canada had 5.1. The United States? 29.7.

More American exceptionalism: We are the only country that responds to such carnage with straight-faced proposals to make gun ownership easier. Such as the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, whose otherwise paltry policy positions include expanding concealed carry rules to make a permit from any state valid nationwide.

As Obama observed, our inaction is un-American. "When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives," he said.

The Second Amendment protects a right to gun ownership. It does not forestall reasonable regulation. The sorts of small steps that now appear unachievable would not interfere with the needs of responsible gun owners.

It is too soon to know how the Roseburg killer obtained his weapon or weapons; how evident was his mental illness; whether he could have been stopped. It is not too soon for all of us, myself included, to feel ashamed by our willingness to accept the status quo as bloody but immutable.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.