In Copy/Pasted Tweet, Trump Proves There Are Too Many Mass Shootings in the US to Keep Track

At least four people were killed in a shooting spree in Rancho Tehama Reserve, California on Tuesday, and at least two students were among 10 people wounded at an elementary school. (Photo: @BeccaReports/Twitter)

In Copy/Pasted Tweet, Trump Proves There Are Too Many Mass Shootings in the US to Keep Track

After shooting in California, the president offers condolences for an attack that took place nine days earlier in Texas

President Donald Trump's response to the shootings that took place in Rancho Tehama Reserve, California on Tuesday was predictable in its assurance that his thoughts were with the attack victims.

But critics and gun control advocates were especially frustrated by his tweeted reaction, in which he appeared to clearly illustrate the United States' unusually high rate of mass shootings by confusing the attack with one that took place nine days earlier.

Sutherland Springs is the Texas town where a gunman killed 25 people and injured 20 on November 5, using a semiautomatic rifle.

In Rancho Tehama Reserve, an apparent felon killed at least four people and injured 10. The shooter used two handguns and a semiautomatic rifle, shooting at people in several locations in the small town after stealing a car, and then firing 20 to 30 rounds at an elementary school while students hid under their desks.

Authorities say no children were among the dead, but two children were wounded.

The attack is the 317th mass shooting to happen in the United States in 2017 according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Trump deleted his tweet incorrectly naming the town where the attack took place, but many expressed dismay that shootings are either so commonplace in the U.S. that they require only a copy-and-pasted tweet as a response from the president--or that they happen so frequently that the details of each shooting blur together for those who haven't been personally affected.

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