School shootings are terrible events -- except for the left where they represent opportunities, as in Rahm Emanuel’s “Never let a crisis go to waste” modus operandi.

CNN, for example, wasted no time in politicizing the latest school shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

What are we “refusing to do”? Schools are already “gun-free zones.”  After the last Colorado mass shooting in Aurora in 2013, the state banned gun magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition. That was “doing something” which apparently did not stop the most recent shooting this past week.

Colorado also passed a “red flag” gun bill last month which, “Allows a family member or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove someone’s guns for up to a year.” This was passed by a Democrat-controlled state legislature and signed by a Democrat governor, representing the will of elected Democrats rather than the will of the people.

Despite Chris Cuomo’s protestations, Colorado has done “a damn thing” but without much success in stopping yet another school shooting. Perhaps these measures are ineffective, but that’s not something the media cares to delve into.

After the shooting, other than some virtue signaling by the media, the story has left the front pages, as the narrative may be inconvenient for the leftist agenda. CNN and MSNBC have lived up to their reputation as “drive-by media” by quickly moving on. No interviews with David Hogg or other gun control fanatics. So, what are some of the inconvenient aspects to this story that the media would prefer to drive by without any discussion or analysis?

Let’s start with the weapons. The two shooters, “opened fire with handguns that were concealed in a guitar case”, as reported by the Daily Mail in an unexpected good faith effort at honest journalism. Handguns? What happened to those evil AR-15’s or “assault weapons” that Democrats and the media constantly warn about? These are what the Huffington Post calls “weapons of war.”

The reality is that most gun crimes are committed with handguns not rifles. But this doesn’t fit the media narrative and it’s better to drive-by the story rather than explain this inconvenient truth.

Next are the bystanders. Remember the admonition, “When seconds count, help is minutes away”? This played out in the Colorado shooting. You can “hide under your desk,” as one option suggested by the New York Times.

In Colorado, a student who was also an aspiring Marine, took a different approach. He “jumped into action,” throwing himself on the shooter, helping to disarm him.

He was joined by another brave student who “rushed to help his two classmates subdue the shooter.” The point is that these heroic students immediately went on offense, rather than passively hiding, perhaps unnerving the shooter and preventing this from becoming a mass casualty event.

Then there was the school vigil in Colorado, a time for holding candles and chanting about “common sense gun control measures.” Attending were local Democrat politicians, including Senator Michael Bennet, one of dozens running for president. Rather than a receptive audience, the vigil organizer, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, instead saw, “A walkout by students opposing what they viewed as politicization of the tragedy.”

This was not the narrative that the media wanted to report on. They would prefer David Hogg ranting and raving, blaming Trump, the NRA, and toxic white masculinity for the shooting. How inconvenient that the affected students chanted “mental health” and didn’t join in the predictable politicization of a tragedy by the left.

One of the two shooters didn’t fit this mold. He was anti-Christian, critical of President Trump, a registered Democrat, and supportive of left-wing Occupy Democrats. In other words, his views were perfectly aligned with the Democrat Party base, a perspective big media would prefer to avoid discussing.

Colorado is also famous for legal marijuana; the first state to legalize a potential mind-altering substance. Psychology Today tells us that “marijuana increases violent behavior.” The Wall Street Journal agrees, citing marijuana’s “links to violence and mental illness.”

The media turns a blind eye to substance abuse problems, except in the case of opioids when Big Pharma can be blamed. US politicians, including presidential wannabe Senator Cory Booker, want marijuana legalized nationwide. He is joined by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand in wanting to make weed perfectly legal nationally. The media cheers them on without any thoughtful journalistic query over potential adverse consequence.

Ignored is the link between marijuana and many mass killers. Will the media be curious about whether the two Colorado shooters had marijuana in their systems? Probably not as it is against the preferred narrative.

Just a day after the shooting, Denver became the first city to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms.  CNN found little fault with the voters’ decision, even on top of another school shooting. Inconveniently not discussed are the dangers of such mushrooms, including unpredictable behavior, permanent brain damage, violent and aggressive behavior, and poor judgement.

Exactly how will schools be safer with students tripping out on magic mushrooms? The media prefers not to discuss this. What about mixing now legal shrooms and weed? What might go wrong? Let’s just drive by that story. 

Speaking of violent behavior, the father of one of the shooters is a twice deported illegal from Mexico, jailed previously for domestic violence against the shooter’s mother. Illegals are revered by the Democrat Party and any connection between an illegal and the shooting will be dutifully ignored by most of the media.

Lastly one of the Colorado shooters was transgender, a female transitioning into a male. I’m sure there is a specific gender identity term for such a person, but I am not woke enough to know what that term is. Suffice it to say, a female becoming a male will be taking testosterone. There is scientific evidence of an association between higher testosterone levels and aggressive or violent behavior.

In the mainstream media, transgenders are the highest form of human evolution. It would be most inconvenient to raise even the possibility of an association between gender transitioning and the recent school shooting, so don’t expect Meet the Press or Face the Nation to discuss any of this.

It would have been so much more convenient for Morning Joe or Jake Tapper if the Colorado school shooters were cis-gendered, white, Christian males, members of the NRA, wearing MAGA hats while brandishing AR-15s. But since that wasn’t the case, don’t expect the media to linger on this shooting. Instead they will focus on Trump’s real estate tax losses from 30 years ago.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.

Correction: A previous edition of this article mistakenly reported that a student who aspired to be a Marine died stopping a school shooter, when in fact that student did not die.  The error has been corrected.