As tragic as the drug crisis is, I do think people react more viscerally when a classroom full of elementary school kids gets shot up, than when the same number of skid row druggies take a bad batch and OD.
There's a sense that the kids were innocent and had potential, while the druggies were at the ends of their ropes - and if the OD didn't get them, something else would have. It's easier to write off their lives. I don't necessarily like it, but it's true.
By the way, there was also justified white-hot rage at the Uvalde police's response. By the way, the Uvalde police department was *well-funded.* You don't always get what you pay for, as it turns out. Sometimes coward cops take the money and run.
Let's try to solve both problems, but in the meantime, Uvalde-like mass shooting events are always going to be relevant because parents want to protect their kids.
