Another dreadful massacre
Almost immediately, the rhetoric has turned to US gun laws.
The world awoke yesterday morning to the terrible news that 59 people were gunned down at a Las Vegas concert.
It is the worst mass shooting in the United States’ history.
It’s difficult to comprehend the horror of this situation – a country music concert, a warm night, a big crowd, everyone relaxed and happy. It is late-ish at night, but easily the sort of concert a family would attend.
Then the staccatto clatter of automatic gunfire rings out and the horrific reality emerges that everyone at that concert is in range of a man hellbent on mindless slaughter.
This isn’t the act of foreign extremists making a sickening political statement, but the act of a lone gunman.
The gunman, Stephen Paddock, took his own life, making it harder to get much insight into what motivated him.
What we’re left with is a violent death for 59 people and heartbreaking, lifelong tragedy for thousands more.
Almost immediately, the rhetoric has turned to US gun laws and the to and fro over whether fewer guns or tighter access might prevent this from happening.
The statistics are frightening – more than 300 million guns circulating in a country of 325 million people, 273 mass shootings this year alone and 11,652 people shot dead.
So, where to from here? A massive gun amnesty, fast-tracked legislation to lock down gun ownership, the rapid dismantling of the National Rifle Association (NRA)? In reality, none of this will happen. US President Donald Trump has previously stated that the only thing that will stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.
He has clearly pledged not to change the state of play with gun laws and he won’t alter that stance.
The NRA is a giant, unyielding political force in the US with massive influence and support.
It hasn’t formed a meaningful response to previous mass shootings and the Las Vegas massacre isn’t likely to be any different.
It doesn’t have to change and it won’t change and gun worship will continue, maybe even increase as people feel the need to arm themselves against an enemy they can’t see and won’t see coming.
All of this is distressing and unnerving for the friends and family of the victims who will from this day on wear the sadness and trauma of this day like a heavy, damp cloak. From a shooting that has the dubious distinction of being the worst yet.