Primary school shooting in America

[Daisy]

I'm sure most of us have seen this on the news and are horrified by the senseless loss of 19 young lives and two adults.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61573377

Shocking facts emerge - the alleged gun man had sophisticated military style weapons, he's suspected of shooting his grandmother just before he went to the school and he was wearing body armour.

The horror of this is unbelievable and the more you read, the worse it becomes -

It's just over a week since 10 people were killed in a supermarket in Buffalo.

There have been 27 school shooting this year alone.

In 2020 guns overtook car crashes to become the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers.

So called "active shooter" attacks have doubled since coronavirus started in 2020.

School children routinely rehearse what to do in the event of gun attacks on them. Can you imagine what that must be like for them.

Joe Biden asks when are they going to stand up to the gun lobby! Changing the gun culture would be an amazing legacy for him, but it's depressing to wonder how many more children will die before anything changes.

[Gemini]

So sad and tragic. There are no words to express how awful this is

The States need to radically rethink it's whole attitude to gun ownership.

[Oma]

To be honest I don’t think anything will change , Gun enthusiasts will rally up against any new law and there are so many gun owners that any change would be hard to police ,
It would go underground and no records of ownership would happen .

I watched a programme not so long ago and it was shocking some of the arms ordinary people had in there homes around children .

Can you imagine our little ones having to practice drills in case of gun attacks in school ,

Those poor people and all those lost little ones , it’s heartbreaking 💔

[Plantaholic]

Dreadful news, why are the American public not standing against the gun culture when their children are at risk, makes no sense. They say there are more guns owned than there are people in the USA.

[Daisy]

I think part of the problem is guns are so easily available. You can buy them in the supermarket with your weekly shop and there are no effective checks on the ID of people who buy them. Everyone knows this.

Would any of us know how to go about buying a gun in the UK? I wouldn't have a clue, except that they have to be licensed, and kept under lock and key, and this is checked on by the police.

Oma - you're right, it's heartbreaking, but nothing changes.

But societies can change if there's effective legislation. It took a long time but the vast majority of us wear a seat belt in the car - automatically. We don't even think about it. Smoking cigarettes has become fairly rare in public here, and most people wouldn't dream of drink driving. But all those changes came about through changes in the law. The Americans don't seem to have the will to do this, and innocent children keep getting gunned down. It makes me so angry.

[Nanto2girls]

Saw this on the news this morning. Tragic.

[Oma]

How tragic the news today that the husband of one of the teachers killed has also died of a heart attack leaving 4 children orphaned. So so sad the heartache just keeps going on .

[Daisy]

Oma - that's awful. I don't know how old the 4 children are, but to lose first your mum and then your dad in a few days in such a horrible way is devastating.

[Gemini]