“Rinse and Repeat”: Gavin Newsom Laments America’s Mass Shooting Epidemic

Women leave a gathering area for rail yard workers and family members after a gunman killed eight people at a union meeting.Noah Berger/AP

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.In a press conference responding to the shooting deaths of eight people in a San Jose rail yard this afternoon, California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed his weariness at the frequency of mass shootings, asking, “What the hell is going on in the United States of America?”
“There’s a numbness I imagine some of us are feeling about this, because there’s a sameness to this,” he said. “It just feels like this happens over and over and over again. Rise and repeat, rinse and repeat.”
President Biden has ordered the flag to be lowered to half staff for the fifth time since he took office. “There are at least eight families who will never be whole again,” Biden wrote in a statement. “There are children, parents, and spouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters—good, honest, hardworking people—who are mourning their own.”
The San Jose gunman killed eight people before turning the gun on himself. He set his own house on fire before beginning shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority union meeting, authorities said. They believe there are still explosive devices inside the VTA building.
“What the hell is wrong with us?” Newsom asked, “And when are we going to come to grips with this? When are we going to put down our arms, literally and figuratively?”
Watch the video below:

.@GavinNewsom, on Wednesday’s mass shooting in San Jose: “There’s a numbness I imagine some of us are feeling about this because there’s a sameness…It just feels like this happens over and over and over again. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.” pic.twitter.com/OKXycz9Bpn
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) May 26, 2021