"No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens" is the recurring headline of articles published by the American news satire organization The Onion after mass shootings in the United States. The articles satirize and lament the country's failure, unique among developed countries, to prevent gun violence.

Each article is about 200 words long, detailing the location of the shooting and the number of victims, but otherwise remaining essentially the same.

Background The article was first published on May 27, 2014, following the Isla Vista killings. Struggling to continually satirize mass shootings, Jason Roeder suggested the republished story to reduce emotional trauma for the writers while increasing their impact. The Onion has since republished the article after dozens of mass shootings, changed only to reflect the specifics of each shooting. In 2017, Marnie Shure, the managing editor for The Onion, said: "By re-running the same commentary, it strengthens the original commentary tenfold each time. ... In the wake of these really terrible things, we have this comment that really holds up."

After The Onion republished the article on February 14, 2018, following the Parkland high school shooting, Roeder wrote that he "had no idea it would be applied to the high school a mile from [his] house". On May 25, 2022, after the Uvalde school shooting, The Onion featured all 21 versions of the article they had written since 2014 on the home page of their website and on their Twitter feed. The homepage feature was repeated after the July 4 Highland Park shooting, when the article count had increased to 25. As of December 2025, it has been published 39 times.

Reception The New York Times wrote in 2017 that "with each use, [the headline] seemed to turn from cheeky political commentary on gun control into a reverberation of despair". Mashable wrote that "nothing captures that feeling of frustration and powerlessness" following major mass shootings as well as The Onion articles, adding that "there's no shortage of brilliant Onion pieces, but none have resonated—or been as tragically prescient—like the 'No Way' post."

The Washington Post wrote that The Onion "appears to capture the frustration and futility felt by so many people" following mass shootings, noting the increased Internet traffic the articles draw and how popular they are on social media. The Huffington Post said the articles have become "a staple of the social media response to mass shootings", citing how widely shared they are on Facebook and Twitter.

The Daily Beast mentioned the articles in a piece titled "How The Onion Became One of the Strongest Voices for Gun Control". Similarly, Wired mentioned it in an article discussing the power of The Onion satire in the face of gun violence, titled "Only The Onion Can Save Us Now".

List , The Onion has published the article 39 times, each in response to a mass shooting in the United States.

+Instances of the article being published Publication date Shooting 1 May 27, 2014 Isla Vista, California 2 June 17, 2015 Charleston, South Carolina 3 October 1, 2015 Roseburg, Oregon 4 December 3, 2015 San Bernardino, California 5 October 2, 2017 Las Vegas, Nevada 6 November 5, 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas 7 February 14, 2018 Parkland, Florida 8 May 18, 2018 Santa Fe, Texas 9 September 13, 2018 Bakersfield, California 10 October 29, 2018 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 11 November 8, 2018 Thousand Oaks, California 12 June 1, 2019 Virginia Beach, Virginia 13 August 4, 2019 El Paso, Texas 14 August 4, 2019 Dayton, Ohio 15 February 26, 2020 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 16 March 17, 2021 Atlanta, Georgia 17 March 23, 2021 Boulder, Colorado 18 April 16, 2021 Indianapolis, Indiana 19 May 26, 2021 San Jose, California 20 May 16, 2022 Buffalo, New York 21 May 25, 2022 Uvalde, Texas 22 June 2, 2022 Tulsa, Oklahoma 23 June 6, 2022 Chattanooga, Tennessee 24 June 6, 2022 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 25 July 4, 2022 Highland Park, Illinois 26 October 14, 2022 Raleigh, North Carolina 27 November 20, 2022 Colorado Springs, Colorado 28 November 23, 2022 Chesapeake, Virginia 29 January 23, 2023 Monterey Park, California 30 January 24, 2023 Half Moon Bay, California 31 February 14, 2023 East Lansing, Michigan 32 March 27, 2023 Nashville, Tennessee 33 April 10, 2023 Louisville, Kentucky 34 May 8, 2023 Allen, Texas 35 July 5, 2023 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 36 October 26, 2023 Lewiston, Maine 37 September 4, 2024 Winder, Georgia 38December 16, 2024Madison, Wisconsin 39December 15, 2025Providence, Rhode Island

See also

List of countries by firearm-related homicide rates

Notes

References

Bibliography