THE ORLANDO MASSACRE
Our June 27 cover--which listed the names of every person fatally shot in Orlando, alongside the question "Why did they die?"--moved readers like George Zaver of Los Angeles, who wanted to see a focus on the victims and not the "madman killer." For Don Wigal of New York City, the cover's somber and stark aesthetic evoked an older TIME cover, which in 1966 asked a different question: Is God Dead?
Some, like Jon Edwards of Novato, Calif., stressed the importance of language in characterizing the tragedy. The cover question was "insensitive," he said, for not making clear that the deaths in question were murders.
As for answering that question? Barbara Mann of Frederick, Md., wrote that the victims died because "we as a nation allow assault weapons…
