Conor Friedersdorf has an outstanding piece on why the Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin shootings seemed to evoke such different levels of coverage and attention:

Having flattened so many laws (and a good many innocents) in pursuit of the terrorist, the American majority is naturally loath to focus its attention on a terrorist who looks, talks, and dresses as they do. It is particularly uncomfortable for those in the country who feel most reflexively safe when “an American” is beside them on a plane, instead of a bearded man with a turban. Watching Oak Creek, that subset of Americans was put in a position to realize that a day prior they’d have identified with the terrorist more than his victims. 

And so they quickly looked away.

And we’ve been looking away–or worse–since the late morning of 9/11.