‘No way to prevent this’: why the Onion’s gun violence headline is so devastating

The Onion's homepage on 26 May was filled with different iterations of the same story. Photograph: The Onion/screengrab

After each mass shooting in the US come the familiar rituals: the thoughts and prayers, the presidential visits, the flood of media coverage – and a darkly memorable headline from a fake newspaper.

“No way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens.”