Maybe there is a lot being done, but from an outsider looking in, it appears that nobody is trying to make any changes to limit the shootings that take place far too frequently south of the border.
The pro-gun control crowd will tell you that guns don't kill people. I both agree with that sentiment and also find it incredibly offensive because it's completely wrong. In all of these shootings, mental-health issues are the biggest problem. The second biggest problem is excellent access to weaponry that gives people the power to commit these massive crimes.
Americans have a love affair with guns. Guns are the children that can do no wrong in the eyes of the parent.
The absence of any real gun control in the United States has led to a culture that puts up with these shootings. Our friends to the south may never consider limits on firearm possession an acceptable solution to their violence problems.
It isn't a catch-all solution, but having some sort of process in place to acquire these weapons will change how people perceive guns.
For some people, the answer is more guns. In the wake of the shooting in a Colorado theatre earlier this year, some suggested that if other people in the theatre had guns, lives would be saved. To them, the only way that theatre could be safe is if 10 other people had concealed weapons and started shooting them in the dark in a crowded theatre at the original culprit. Anybody who says that would play out better is delusional.
In that sense, the best way to discourage school shootings and save lives is to give every teacher a gun for their desk. To these people, the best solution to the gun problem is more guns, which is apparently how logic works for some people.
My boss hunts and said he's in favour of strict control on guns. I have other friends with guns. They're hunters. We do have rules that come with gun ownership, though. We aren't allowed to carry concealed weapons. Pretty much anybody can get a gun licence in Canada, but there is at least some sort of process in owning a gun.
All those things have an impact our attitude towards guns. These rules reinforce the idea that guns are serious and dangerous weapons. Keeping one or more takes some real responsibility. It seems the weapons are just taken much too lightly in the United States.
These mass shootings aren't just about mental-health problems. If they were, then I don't imagine America would have a rate so much higher than the rest of the world. That's only the case if Americans have a susceptibility for mental illness many times higher than the rest of us.
I get the feeling it's not all about mental health. The freedom of America's gun laws simply help enable these massacres to continue, and no matter how much everyone wants them to stop, far too many people in the States consider the frequency of these shootings a price they are willing to pay for their gun freedom.
Following these tragedies, people want some sort of good to come from it. No good ever does. If people continue to ignore the negative impact of firearms, there will be no change. Until everyone really gets tired of this garbage happening in their communities, nothing will change.
Actions speak louder than words. The Americans say they want these shootings to stop, but I won't take them seriously until there is some action in the spirit of preventing further massacres.
