When I was young it seemed to be an extraordinary event when the United States flag was flown at half mast. It was especially so back then as it did not happen that often. It is still a big deal to fly the flag at half mast, but it seems to be happening all the time now. Often it seems to be for victims of yet another mass shooting incident which are an absolute pandemic in this country. After the recent FedEx shooting in Indianapolis, there were two more of ONLY 3 or so people, one in Wisconsin and one Texas, this past weekend.
I am going to suggest that it would be easier and saner to leave the flags at half mast all the time until we do something about the availability of guns in this country – especially assault style rifles – and gun laws in general. The fact that we have failed to act on gun legislation, that guns have become so prevalent in our society, that mass shootings are so common, that guns are especially problematic in inner cities (there is nearly a gun death a day in St. Louis), is reason enough to be flying the flag at half mast. I am not so sure that we should not be flying it upside down as a signal of dire distress.
And so it goes.
There is one word in Spanish that I should never had had to learn, tiroteo. The literal translation is shooting, but they seem to use in the sense of mass shootings.