US is turning the gun on itself

The time for prayers and expressions of sorrow is past. Now is the time to legislate and take guns out of American civilian life and society. A civilisational and cultural shift is what the country needs after a spate of murders. Calling them gun crimes makes the issue sound rather tame. Simplistic solutions are not the answer. What the country needs is solid legislation that could begin with an amnesty for people to hand over their guns. It has worked in Australia and should work in the US, if only there is political will and bipartisan support. It needs introspection on how society has slipped into an abyss, led by a lobby that promotes weapons. When will this end? The answer should be now. Any other way would be playing into the hands of mass murderers known as the National Rifle Association. It happened again on Friday when one more shooting took place at a high school in Texas. This time, it was a 17-year-old, who used a shotgun and a .38 revolver, legally owned by his father, to unleash terror, cherry picking his victims. Messages of outrage are pouring in, and so are condolences and prayers for the families of the bereaved. But not even a word by lawmakers on the urgent need of gun control laws. Instead, efforts are being made to understand the motives behind this ghoulish crime, the psyche of the killer, as if it’ll help or lessen the grief of families who have lost their loved ones. There’s outrage, but not many are surprised. It had to happen, somewhere, and will continue to until the law tightens the noose on gun dealers. Sick minds and easy access to guns is a deadly combination.

Putting guns in the classroom, forcing teachers to act as armed police officers, is not a solution. Lawmakers should mandate universal background checks. They must make buying guns difficult, plug loopholes in regulations, make arms dealers accountable for all missing guns, empower families to report and take guns away from people deemed to be a risk of harming anyone. More than 1,600 mass shootings have happened in the last five years as per news reports. Hollow, vacuous tweets, messages make no sense if children, the future of America are losing their lives to an insane amendment under the US constitution. American society should bite the bullet. President Trump should set the ball rolling. If he tarries, the body count will keep rising.