Noted: A recent study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison of social media reaction to mass shootings points to one of the obstacles that proponents of gun control face in marshaling political support for new gun restrictions even after the most horrific of these events.
Dhavan Shah, the UW-Madison professor who oversaw the study, said in an interview Monday that with each new shooting now, it is his sense that expressions of sympathy are increasingly seen as inadequate.
“I do think there is more of an immediate recoiling at the notion of (just) ‘thoughts and prayers.’ … There is a sense of the emptiness of that,” said Shah, director of the school’s Mass Communication Research Center. “Whatever side it is, I don’t think there is a lot of people who don’t think this a problem at this point.”