Andrew Austin, Editor OF Hawke's Bay Today.
It is quite incredible that a large proportion of Americans don't see what the rest of the western world sees when it comes to gun control.
I have written on this subject in the past — so many mass shootings ago that I cannot even count them — but nothing
seems to change.
Americans, generally speaking, seem obsessed with their guns to the point that they cannot see what the problem is. The rest of us know the answer — tighter gun control.
Simply do not allow people, unless under special circumstances, to carry automatic or semi-automatic weapons. But for some reason, Americans cling to their Second Amendment Right to bear arms and to the rest of us it seems like they are not prepared to give that up, no matter how many die. The common argument in the conservative US media in that more guns need to be put in the right hands. Good guys with guns will stop bad guys with guns.
Thankfully there does seem to be momentum growing against that type of thinking after the latest school massacre in Florida. Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz has been charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week. Many have had enough and they are standing up in protest.
