Editor:

Three mass shootings in a week, all committed by white men. Headline after headline about white nationalism, domestic terrorism, men who hate women, white racists, Trump's bigotry and, flowing through it all, the numbers: By the Journal's own count, 257 mass shootings in America this year ("31 Points," Aug. 8).

The implication being that crazed white men, with easy, legal access to guns, are shooting the continent into blood-spattered rags.

The statistics, however, tell a different story. Of those 257, "mass shootings," the overwhelming majority have been gang-related, black-on-black violence, concentrated in a relatively few, small areas.

I look at the numbers and am appalled: More than 257 mass shootings in America just this year. Three or more victims per shooting. No media attention. Do these people not matter?

I say to everyone who wants to throw that "257 mass shootings" statistic in our face: When you've put as much effort into finding out why the black people in this country are killing each other at such a horrific rate, and shown as much desire to end that carnage as you've put into denying that it's happening, and calling anyone who brings it up a racist, why, then, and only then, will I listen to all your bullshit about "white male gunmen."

Black lives do matter. All of our lives matter. We're Americans, not Africans, Europeans, South Americans, Australians or Asians. 

Look around you. Who is your family? The USA is a melting pot. Off the top of my head, I can think of family members who are white, black, Chinese, Japanese-Hawaiian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Native American. How can anyone afford to hate a race? At the same time, how can we ignore a problem simply because it's considered "racist" to bring it up?

Steve Parr, Eureka