The effect of the repetition, Nackers explained, is the point. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Idaho resident Kathy Miller, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. In Wednesday's story about the Uvalde elementary school shooting, it read: It then features a new photo from the scene, which appears similar to the others in that they all tend to show police cars, flashing sirens, or crime scenes taped off.įinally, the name of a fake person is changed to provide the same quote, which the Onion then proceeds to dismantle to highlight its absurdity. The first and most prominent is the dateline of the story, listing the location of the latest attack. 'We have this platform, and we felt like this is a very effective way to show how it just keeps on happening.'Įach variation of the Onion story changes only a few details. 'One week it's a hate crime on people of color in Buffalo this week, it's kids in a primarily Hispanic school,' he said. Nackers, who has helmed the Onion since 2017 but has worked at the publication since before the 1999 Columbine massacre, told BuzzFeed News that he and his staff decided to take action after feeling exhausted and angry at the recent shootings. The Onion's actions on Wednesday went viral among many Americans feeling despondent about yet another mass shooting - just a week after a shooter in Buffalo, New York, killed 10 mostly Black shoppers at a supermarket - and angry at the lack of gun control legislation. And that's just incredibly sad and it's horrifying.' It takes you probably 30 seconds to scroll through all the articles if you just keep moving. 'If you look, it takes a while - even on the Twitter feed - to scroll through how many times we posted it today,' Nackers said. 'Today, it kind of shows how powerful that looks when the entire homepage is filled with showing that nothing has been done for eight years,' Nackers said. On Wednesday, the Onion published its 21st variation of the story - this time in response to the murder of 19 elementary school children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, the previous day.įor the first time ever, the Onion devoted its entire front page to all 21 past stories and linked all the past pieces in a long Twitter thread. 'And this kind of encompasses everything and it just works so well and it captures the helplessness of it.' 'It's just incredibly draining and it's hard to actually find like new angles on it,' Onion Editor-in-Chief Chad Nackers told BuzzFeed News in an interview on Wednesday. In the years since, it has published that same headline 20 more times. Starting with the 2014 attack in Isla Vista, California, that killed six people, the Onion published a piece titled ' 'No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.' It jokingly bills itself 'America's finest news source,' but for years now the Onion has done exceptional, biting coverage of a very American phenomenon.Įach time there is a high-profile mass shooting, the satirical website publishes a variation of the exact same story.

Onion headline about mass shootings