Why can't I get away from news about the Columbine anniversary, while the VT 2 year anniversary passed unnoticed on 4/16? Columbine toll: 15, VT toll: 33

10 year anniversary vs 2 year anniversary

As jp007 says, we are just on our 2nd year as opposed to their 10th.

Reading the great Wikipedia, and also from the general media, it appears that the shootings at Columbine were at that point the most recent in the past 30 years where a sizeable number of people were killed.

Sure, the shootings here have the most deaths to date, as well as a variety of backgrounds, but I really think that the Columbine incident garners such attention because it was a "first".

Don't worry, this year didn't go unnoticed. They'll come back to us full force in a few years.

A few days after the VT shootings, there was a table on the quad at the local university, soliciting donations for the families of the victims.

I asked one of the persons at the table if she could tell me how many American troops were killed in Iraq that week. Several people heard the question, no one had any idea.

It was a higher number.

Numbers, numbers, numbers...