Thoughts and Prayers May 2018

Yet more shootings have occurred in US schools.  Again.


The above video was recorded last year in response to the way that US politicians keep blaming mental health for these shootings which do not occur anywhere as frequently in developed nations with decent gun controls.

I am grateful that I live in a nation where I do not have to worry as much as parents in the USA that my children will be murdered at school. Danger is everywhere in all nations and the mass murder of children can happen in any western nation. It last happened in the UK in 1996, following which a ban on handguns was imposed. Before this, following a mass shooting in 1987, semi-automatic weapons had been banned.

Since then, we have had incidents where the murder of more than one person has occurred, but these have been rare, one example being, how Derrick Bird killed many innocent people, followed by the murderous rampage of Raoul Moat. But this was in 2010 and while mass murder has occurred since then on several occasions, firearms have not been used in this manner to kill so many. The thing is that guns are still legal in the UK, though there are restrictions on what guns can be owned.

Gun crime exists here, but the rates are far lower than in nations like the USA, just like how the overall murder rate in the USA is higher than in other developed nations. The call in the USA by many is for assault weapons to be banned. Those who are against it cite the second amendment to the US constitution which allows the right to bear arms. But this was made in a time when a well trained person would take almost a minute to shoot three times. I have discussed this with my wife, and she is of the view that nothing will change in the USA. And to be fair, she may be right. After the murders of very young children in Sandy Hook, assault weapons are still legal, and this is probably due to the campaign contributions made by organisations like the NRA to protect the right of Americans to have assault rifles, though this has meant the continued murder of children in schools. Something that does not happen anywhere near as often outside the USA.  And when it is okay to kill kids aged between six and seven, teenagers have no chance of being protected by gun laws.  Which means, that other than the ban on bump stocks, Trump is not going to act to stop the continued mass murder of American children in schools.