Waking to the news of yet another mass shooting in America sadly comes as no surprise. Because these days such announcements are all too common.

And while America is sending thoughts and prayers, so too does the rest of globe whilst simultaneously shaking our heads in utter disbelief. Simply, the disbelief in yet more innocents lost and the complete inactivity and incredulity to see the need for actualising change and obvious measures.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve come to loathe retorts like “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. Or conclusions that point the finger directly at mental illness as the be all and end all. How is that time and time again the simple act of making it difficult for Americans to attain guns in the first place is fought with tooth and nail? Worst still camouflaged and sold as a threat to their constitutional rights? Is a general sense of safety not listed on that bill? The freedom to go to school to learn and only need to practice fire drills once or twice a year?

In 1996 a popular tourist site in Port Arthur made headlines as the deadliest mass shooting in Australian history. Thirty-five killed and countless others injured. Following such an atrocious tragedy John Howard, the Prime Minister at the time set in immediate motion for stricter gun control reform. He introduced laws which saw restricted ownership of semi-automatic shotguns and rifles and uniform licensing to all Australians. This took all but twelve days, yes twelve days, which saw and promised security and assurance. And deliver it did. Australia has yet to experience anything as remotely as deadly as what occurred over twenty years ago. During that same year, Scotland also experienced a heartbreaking massacre in which sixteen children and a teacher were shot dead at Dunblane Primary School. Within the next twelve or so months the United Kingdom followed suit and introduced strict gun ownership laws. They too are yet to experience anything remotely similar.

Now tell me how would implementing similar measures affect the average American?

So you won’t have access to military grade rifles and ammunition. And you’d have to go through security checks and waiting periods and obtain a licence just to have a gun in your possession. Oh my, how ever will you live?

The fact that this problem is so ingrained and common enough that it simply clouds judgement and common sense is ludicrous. Using mental illness as a distraction while tarnishing already fragile stigmas and associations does more harm than good. And searching for at ways to keep safe rather than focus on preventions is simply insanity.

This nonsense about a need for more precautionary measures at schools like installing metal detectors, barricades and bag checks all sounds like a synopsis for a bad dystopian society tale. Is this a school or a prison? At it’s core, this all sounds a lot like victim blaming. Like when a women wears a short skirt is just asking to be groped. Or if she goes for a run alone late at night she’s asking to be assaulted. No, she is not the problem, the one who gropes is at fault, so is the assaulter. The problem always lies within the perpetrators not the victim so why is the American public satisfied with allowing potential killers easy access to guns and military grade weapons? Military grade. Why on earth does anyone need access to these types of ammunition period?

If you remove the ease of accessing a gun then you remove the weapon of choice. Such attacks causing immense catastrophe are then void. Simple.

Placing barricades and arming teachers or adults with weapons will not help. Remember the Las Vegas shootings? There were armed security guards and yet no one managed to secure a weapon to take down the shooter. Hell, even Jason Aldean and his band were armed but too frightened to reach for their own as they witnessed countless spectators being gunned down. And to those people who rebut gun laws by saying “look at all the terrorist attacks in Europe. If you had guns you wouldn’t have this problem”, as of today there have been zero terrorist attacks to the west and eighteen mass shootings.

Arming Americans with more guns only benefits those who profit from their sales.

Nothing more comes of this, except for inciting more mass shootings.

“insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein could not have said it better.

Why in America is it more effortless to purchase a gun, much like you would a block of chocolate, and yet so much red tape when it comes to a contraception pill or need for abortion? It is incongruous that one has better access a gun then they do to health care. America, wake up and take a good look around. You’re the odd one out; the only one with a major, major problem. Toughen up your gun laws. No one is going to take them away from you; only make it more difficult to attain. America, how is this so hard to comprehend? That said, if the Sandy Hook massacre doesn’t encourage change or make the American government opt to put the lives of its people first before financial revenue, then sadly nothing will.

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