Melissa Harris-Perry   |  July 21, 2012

Colorado shooting not only gun-violence tragedy

Go Figure: Melissa Harris-Perry outlines the nationwide crime statistics that show that the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, are not the first acts of “senseless violence” this year.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> you have access to a television, computer or newspaper, so by now you have heard the numbers associated with yesterday's senseless tragedy in aurora, colorado . at the midnight screening of "the dark knight rises" 12 is the number the gunman took. 58 is the number of additional people injured and scarred by the shooting. tragic is the word that comes to mind with what happened in colorado , but we cannot lose sight of the shattered lives and loss that occurred there. we also have to remember the tragedy that remembers around the country on a daily basis. both speak to the perilous state we are at with gun violence . three, how many teenager boys were shot on the south side of chicago in two separate shootings. one is how many of the young men survived though he is in critical condition. 275 is the number of murders in chicago nor the current year. 1,205, that's how many shooting incidents chicago has seen just this year in 2012 . 159, that's the number of homicides that have occurred in the city of los angeles so far this year. 642 is how many shooting victims los angeles has seen since the beginning of 2012 . 111 is the current tally of murders in my adopted city of new orleans for this year alone. these numbers show the totality of senseless violence across our country in addition to the horrific tragedy in aurora, colorado . but what they don't know is people are not numbers. yes, shootings and murders can be quantified, but the numbers don't speak to the loss of life and lasting damage to those left behind. the victims in colorado , they were part of someone's family. these young men and women in cities across the country had hopes and dreams that will never be met. and until we get serious about the causes and effects of gun violence everywhere, we will continue to compile statistics on the epidemic. what i want us to do is start working to save people from it.

>>> coming up, what if presidential pardons were considered in a pleatly completely different way. they