A brief post, as there have been plenty of longer and better ones about Newtown, guns, and the insanity that is the NRA's leadership.
Earlier today, a friend posted a link to Slate's listing of people who have been killed by guns since last week's madness. He said "There have already been multiple Newtown’s worth of gun deaths since Newtown."
I don't like that. I don't know Newtown, but I don't think its name deserves better than to be forever linked to horror. There is a better word we can use when we talk about about people who have been sacrificed on the gun industry's blood altar:
LaPierre noun
1: a unit of measurement signifying twenty-six deaths by shooting
Example of usage: There have been 5.6 LaPierres since December 14, 2012.
Every time there's a mass shooting, we measure it in LaPierres. Not Newtowns. Not Auroras. Not Columbines. LaPierres.