If Americans are not grieving this week, we should be.

An assassination attempt that failed by a fraction of an inch. A mass shooting in the making that does not meet the FBI definition only because three of the four victims survived and a Secret Service sniper took the shooter out in seconds.

Yes we are angry — angry at a system fail that let an armed gunman breach security at a rally for not only a presidential candidate but a former president: Multiple shots were fired, one grazing the ear of now GOP nominee Donald Trump as he spoke to a crowd of supporters. Shots killed a rally attendee who dove atop family members to save their lives and critically injured two others.

Why should we grieve?

Are we not grateful to providence that former president Trump’s injury was minor?

We — and we as a country — are.

Are we not grateful as it “could have been worse?”

We are.

But today we join the families of the victims:

Of Corey Comperatore, 50, a volunteer firefighter who “died a hero,” thinking first to protect his loved ones as shots rang out.

Of Jim Copenhaver, 74, a retiree who suffered “life altering” injuries.

Of David Dutch, 57, a Marine Corps veteran now awaiting more surgery.

Of Mr. Trump, who saw not a candidate bloodied, but a husband, a father, shot in what should be the safest country in the world.

We grieve that among us are countrymen who turn to the cowardly slaying of innocents as a solution to whatever it is that ails them.

We grieve that this happened, continues to happen, in America.

Those with far better expertise than ours are investigating — and will continue to investigate, no doubt for months — the whys and the how behind the would-be mass shooting and assassination at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania as Mr. Trump spoke at a campaign rally.

We will await the results of those investigations as we ignore the speculation, the unfounded theories, and the politicization of this horrific incident.

The findings, though, need to be more — much more — than the espousing of should-haves, could-haves, and a regurgitation of the we-need-tos that have followed every such incident.

It is well past time for viable solutions — bipartisan solutions — to be brought to the table and prioritized.

For Secret Service snipers are not always there to “neutralize” the shooter 26 seconds after the first shot is fired.

Our country averages one mass shooting per day and is on track to exceed more than 500 such incidents for the fifth year in a row.

Victims and families deserve no less than to be remembered.

They, in fact, deserve more.

They deserved protection and prevention.

Both are something our country, to the heartbreak of too many, lacks.

Breeze editorial