This wasn't the first time in recent years that a Utah crime has made national, even international headlines. Just last year, the arrest of polygamist Warren Jeffs and the kidnapping/murder of Destiny Norton flashed across the country and around the world.

But the media response to what happened at Trolley Square was considerably less frenzied than perhaps Utah's most high-profile crime story — when Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002. Which is hardly surprising since the long-unsolved kidnapping was an ongoing story, whereas the gunman at Trolley Square was himself killed, drawing a quick curtain on that event. At least in the eyes of the national media.

But watching how quickly the Utah story slipped down the list of important news stories also says something about how commonplace it has become for a gunman to walk into a mall and start shooting people.

For that matter, the shooting in Utah wasn't the only one making headlines. Four people died in a shooting in Philadelphia on Monday night (and in London's Globe and Mail, and other outlets around the world, that story was packaged with the one from Utah); on Tuesday morning there was news from Arizona of three more shooting deaths.

The Smart kidnapping also took off in terms of media attention because it happened at a time when there was a relative lull in the news — there weren't a lot of big stories competing for ink and airtime. Such was not the case on Tuesday, when North Korea was reportedly agreeing to shut down its nuclear program; American officials were accusing Iran of fomenting trouble in Iraq; a tornado had struck New Orleans; the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney would testify at the trial of his former chief aide; bombs were going off in Lebanon; and Mitt Romney was declaring his candidacy for president.

And the Romney story, oddly enough, put Utah in the media spotlight to some degree as well.

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Contributing: Valerie Phillips, Dennis Lythgoe

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com