U.S. gun culture will take decades to clean up
AS students return to their school in Florida where 17 people were recently killed, the debate on the American gun culture continues. This horrific incident is still deep in the heart of minds of those living the reality of it and for now, it is still sparking massive debate across the world.
The problem is, that once the shock of such an unthinkable massacre recedes, in America it seems, the status quo prevails and nothing really changes as the overriding culture there is that guns are an accepted part of life.
There have been countless mass shootings in the USA over many years, and the pro-gun lobby just shouts louder and louder saying that they now have even more reason to be armed. If there are dangerous people walking around with guns, then they are entitled to be able to defend themselves, they say.
I thought that this time there was a slight change in attitude on the way when a number of life-long gun owners who never before blamed the very loose gun laws as a contributing factor - destroy their own weapons publicly and share videos of this online.
It is true that if mindsets can be changed that there is hope, but this ticking time bomb for American society cannot be left up to chance and the hope that people will see sense - because the vast majority of them will not.
The floodgates are already open and there is no way that this culture will be changed in one or even two generations.
There are many layers to this, from the unhealthy societal acceptance of weapons as a necessity or a badge of honour, to the availability of them to people who should never ever be trusted with a life-threatening weapon.
Couple that with the political influence the gun-lobbyists hold and the industry itself and it is one big mess that will take more than Donald Trump arming teachers to sort out.
On that note, the fact that it is even being debated tends to endorse it as a viable option. This can never happen, and it won’t.
It is the most careless and dangerous response to the American gun crisis that I have ever heard and it shows the worrying attitude that the President and many others have on the matter.
It is unthinkable and as a topic it has detracted from the real of issue of tackling a culture that has been in the making for centuries.