Nevada: At least 59 murdered, 527 hospitalized after last night's terrorist massacre.

I don't have much to add except the following:

• Regardless of the shooter's supposed "motivation", this was a terrorist act, plain and simple.

• Whatever purpose the NRA may have once had, it no longer serves any function other than aiding & abetting terrorism.

• Even as I type this, Congress is considering making it easier to buy gun silencers. You know, the exact type of accessory which would have allowed the gunman to massacre even more people before being tracked down if he'd had one.

• Many of the same Republican Senators now sending "thoughts and prayers" voted against renewing the assault weapons ban.

• Gun violence is absolutely a public health crisis and directly ties to healthcare policy in muliple ways. To name just a few:
  • Gun proponents often like to claim that all we need is "more mental health services". The ACA requires mental health services be covered in all compliant policies.
  • CMS recently announced a Special Enrollment Period would be established for victims of Hurricanes Havey, Irma and Maria. I wonder if they'll set up a similar SEP for victims of gun violence? Probably not.
  • Thanks to Congress allowing CHIP funding to expire, Nevada is among the states which expects their reserve CHIP funds to run out by the end of this year. I hope there weren't any children among the 400+ hospitalized. If there were any among the 50+ murdered, of course, CHIP wouldn't do much for them. Around 69,000 NV children are enrolled in CHIP, or about 2.3% of the total state population. Proportionately speaking, that means the odds are that about a dozen of those hospitalized are CHIP enrollees. Of course, the terrorist massacre happened at a concert at night, so there were probably a lower percentage of children there than the population as a whole, but it's still likely that at least a couple of them are.

Over the weekend, Congress let the funding for CHIP (which covers 9 million kids) lapse. Kids in dark blue states most at risk. pic.twitter.com/w1NVdG9UsW

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) October 2, 2017

UPDATE: The tally is now up to 59 murdered, at least 527 injured, many seriously.