Time for gun lobby to bow to pressure

Yet again, this week has featured tragic news of a mass shooting at a school in the United States.

An orphaned 19-year-old with what is described as a “troubled” past has been charged with killing 17 people. It is a truly appalling case – and yet depressingly familiar. We have become accustomed to reading such dreadful headlines but they still have the power to shock and bewilder.

Despite it being the deadliest school shooting in the States for five years, this week’s slaughter also represents the 18th of the year. It is an astonishing statistic.

The year is barely six weeks old, meaning there has been an average of three shootings a week.

It is impossible – thankfully – to imagine the kind of outcry that would occur in this country should such attacks happen with that kind of regularity.

To an extent Americans have become used to mass shootings but there must come a time to say enough is enough.

Such senseless loss of life must be stopped – and there is considerable evidence that public grief is rapidly turning to anger.

Yesterday a host of celebrities, from Kim Kardashian West to Nancy Sinatra, called for tighter gun restrictions.

The gun lobby may be hugely powerful but it will surely become increasingly difficult for the authorities to ignore the demands for meaningful intervention.