With every problem, there are the symptoms and there is the disease.
In the wake of yet another mass shooting in the United States today — this one leaving twenty-seven dead at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school — the disease, clearly, is the culture of violence that pervades the country, and I do not blame anyone for wanting to tackle this disease directly. But when the symptoms manifest themselves in the form of twenty dead children, a call to manage the symptoms through gun control is more than just understandable; it is urgently necessary.
Without doubt, these frequent shootings represent an evil deeper than the mere existence of guns. The country must undergo some major soul searching. But firearms enable the destruction of life with an efficiency that is unconscionable and all-too-effortless. While it may be true that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” we must always remember to end this cliche with the common revision that, far too often, “people with guns kill people.” Any object or tool or implement with such undeniable risks — regardless of its occasional usefulness — needs to be subject to strict public oversight and regulation.
I do not know if today’s massacre in particular could have been averted through gun control, but surely at least some of the mass shootings that riddle the country are preventable. Their unyielding prevalence, in addition to being tragic, is becoming ridiculous. There is no more appropriate time than now, after today’s horrific events, to start a serious national conversation about gun control in America.
My thoughts go out to the victims and their families.
Song of the Watermelon 
This is so outrageous. I do agree with you… Will they promote more guns after this? Do they want every kid to bring their own gun to school?
American political culture is a strange beast. Well, one half of American political culture anyway. A lot of them agree with us.
They don’t think they need to search their souls, though it wouldn’t hurt. What shocks me, however, and what I believe Americans really need to address, is how the right to have a gun, to supposedly fend off government tyrrany, has morphed into the absurd proposition of defending yourself against everyone, even yor neighbors. The gun lobby and the manufacturers of these useless weapons, unfortunately do not have souls to look into, in fact they are out there right now making a quick buck off this tragedy.
Yes, the gun lobby is influential. Americans need to learn to stand up to them and enact laws in accordance with common sense.