Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the shooting in Las Vegas that killed at least 50 people Sunday night represents America’s “new normal.”
“This is the new normal of America, unfortunately,” he said on MSNBC. “The number of mass shootings, the pace has been increasing, and now we’ve got the worst ever.”
A lone shooter is thought to have fired automatic weapons into concertgoers in Las Vegas, an act that took 50 lives and wounded more than 400.
Bratton said police have feared for years that these events could become more common given the accessibility of firearms around the nation.
“This one here is one of many scenarios” that police are preparing for, he said.
Bratton said police are doing what they can to identify people who may have a motive to commit a mass shooting, but said another part of the new normal in America is to be situationally aware.
“The expression that we hear so much in America today, ‘see something, say something,’ is so important,” he said.
“This one is horrific on its scale and scope, and we’ll all be dealing with the after effects of it,” he said. “Why does this happen? Why does it keep happening? How do we stop it? And we don’t have the answer to that yet.”
