So begins the coverage of a suicide on the 13th best grounds – a man with a handgun, of course; and of course we are instructed to call it a tragedy long before we know the circumstances.
In America, all suicides are automatically granted tragedy (“an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe”) status; but this increasingly common event, well on its way to becoming a banality in places like Wyoming, seems to UD to be running out out of gas, tragedy-wise.
Certainly – as UD can attest – when someone near/dear to you does the deed, it’s staggering; but qua daily American newsfeed, qua ye olde quotidian, it’s as impossible to tragedify tens of thousands of bummed guys with guns as it is to get worked up about tens of thousands of bummed guys pointing guns at others.
For guidance on this, UD goes to OK State Sen. Nathan Dahm, who, asked about his state’s astounding suicide rate, said “Everyone dies. That’s life.” When everyone’s got – let’s stick with 13 – guns around the house, including one right there on the nightstand for your convenience during a dark night of the soul (we all get ’em), what do you expect? Eventually the coverage of suicides (if coverage there be) will focus more on the rankings of the golf courses where some of them take place and less on the so-called tragedy of the event.
The suicide itself, in other words, ain’t much of a hook anymore; you’re going to have find another angle.