From Australia
The shocking killings of children, teachers and fire fighters which have traumatised America, are not unique to that country. A crazed attack by a rampaging gunman can happen anywhere, even in the best ordered and most enlightened societies, as Norwegians know to their terrible cost. The difference is that in America these numbing assaults on the innocent occur more often, almost regularly. The other difference is that as a Constitutional right, almost the entire civilian population is legally armed. There is no other country in the world to enshrine in its statutes such an arrangement, nor to have so powerful a lobby to defend its virtues.
The issue inflames passions and splits the country. Many, probably most, want some kind of gun control. The NRA leads the argument against and wants none. The control argument is that public institutions will be safer if arms are reduced; the NRA argues that they will only be truly safe if protected by armed guards. These two positions are irreconcilable, following the pattern of other social and economic arguments, now polarising and paralysing much of US politics today. In the case of guns, the scale of the problem is monumental. There are almost as many legal guns in America as there are people.
Even if agreement were reached to institute some degree of control, it would be likely to make only a marginal difference in the short to medium term, with an effect more symbolic than real. To do the job of bringing America into line with practice in all other advanced democracies, would require the full and compulsory disarming of the civilian population. Not only would an industry be pulverised with the loss of thousands of jobs, but a complete culture change involving the re-evaluation of the notion of individual freedom, would be required by a consenting population. This, in modern America, more politically polarised than at any point since the 1850s, is simply not going to happen. The only other way would be to disarm the population by force. That will not happen either.
America will have to brace itself for more sorrow. Like the profligate banks, the gun culture is just too big to tackle. Yet.