A mass shooting is generally described as an attack involving a firearm and the killing of three or more people at one time. While some quibble on that definition, it’s at least a starting place. While some have a looser definition, few argue that such an attack isn’t a mass shooting.

So, if we take that definition and broaden it just a bit, a mass killing is any incident where three or more people are killed, right?

Then just why is no one in the national media talking about the mass killing this past weekend in Charleston, SC?

An incident report released in a quadruple homicide Saturday morning at a home in Charleston County describes the scene investigators found when they arrived. The coroner’s office identified the victims as 72-year-old Joseph Manigault, 69-year-old Rose Manigault, 42-year-old Kenya Manigault and 15-year-old Faith Manigault. All were listed as being from Mount Pleasant, though their home is outside of the city limits in an unincorporated part of Charleston County.

Why isn’t the media at least talking about this? After all, wouldn’t this bolster their narrative that guns are bad?

Oh, wait. Maybe it’s because the murder weapon wasn’t a gun.

The four victims all died from blunt trauma, according to Charleston County Deputy Coroner Kimberly Rhoton. The Manigault’s grandson, 22-year-old Lovequawn Matthew Shaire Scott, was arrested on Saturday for their deaths and charged with four counts of murder.

In other words, this one man allegedly beat the other four to death. He didn’t need an “assault rifle.” He didn’t need a handgun. He didn’t need anything except brute force to murder four members of his own family (allegedly).

They were beaten to death.

Do you want to know why I’m an advocate for gun rights? It’s because a firearm is the one tool that could have stopped this attack. It’s the one tool that any of those four could have used to stop this person who murdered them in one of the most brutal fashions possible.

Two elderly people, a woman, and a teenage girl are rarely ever going to match the strength and power of a grown man in his prime. They’re not going to be able to fend off an attack like that.

And don’t bring up the police. Despite the best efforts and fondest desires of most police officers, they’d have gotten there well after it was all done. It’s not like they were apparently given a chance to make a phone call.

But the media remains silent. This is a horrific, brutal crime. This is something that one would think would grip the national news media. After all, if it bleeds, it leads, right?

Instead, we get silence. There’s no discussion about what could have motivated someone to do this. There’s no discussion about how horrific a crime this is. Nothing.

Yes, I get that the death toll was lower than Parkland. However, Parkland was a month ago and there’s not really any new information. There’s time enough in the news cycle to talk about this one. Yet we’re not.

That’s because it doesn’t advance the narrative, and that’s why people are less and less trusting of the mainstream media.