When a person in America takes a gun and shoots half a dozen or a dozen or 60 people in one event almost everyone sticks to a script. This happens often enough now that we can basically cut and paste the death tolls and locations onto the story from the last shooting; The Onion did just that on their homepage in the wake of the Uvalde massacre this week, reposting its infamous “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” story 21 times across the site.

There are many other roles to play: liberals say “never again,” conservatives send thoughts and prayers, Democrats fundraise, gun-makers go silent, someone mentions video games, mental health, or hunting.

All of these roles involve a great deal of lying. Here is the truth.