To despair? Another mass shooting in US

[KimberleyClark]

8 people killed. In Texas shopping mall.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65515915

Yes! So true. I remember reading a book called Freakonomics years ago and they covered this. It was fascinating.

clearly the reason abortion is banned is to do with needing as many children as possible to be targets in the national sport of 'shoot up the school'
it would be much less fun if there weren't any kids to slaughter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47711020

Even the attempts to protect children who may face school shootings seems to be sometimes making the situation worse.

Democrat and Republican voters aren't that far apart on gun control issues. They're pretty similar on levels of support for background checks, MH checks, family being able to report if they're concerned, etc.
It's the politicians paid for by the NRA that are the problem.

Americans have basically made the bargain that to keep one freedom (guns), they’re prepared to accept a sacrifice of a certain number of citizens, including unarmed children, to preserve that freedom.
It’s not what I would want for a country, but they’re a democratic country and that’s what they’ve decided.

Even the attempts to protect children who may face school shootings seems to be sometimes making the situation worse
I agree, the drills they have to do also serve to normalize the shooting, but they can't not do the drills
they are in a death spiral

There seems to be a trend towards making them real - ie not telling teacher and pupils they are drills - having people with makeup and looking like they've been shot.

Also some of the training is making situations more dangerous not less.

In a video posted to the Department of Homeland Security YouTube channel setting out the run, hide, fight strategy,

...
In a study of more than 1,000 schools in the US, Michael Dorn found that staff who had undergone such training programmes missed more basic security steps, such as locking doors and calling 911, than those who had no training at all.

...
Mr Dorn's research found that one in four teachers who had undergone run, hide, fight training opted to throw objects at a suicidal student with a gun.
"Participants who had not received formal training began talking to the student, encouraging him to put the gun down, and asking if it was okay for the other students in the classroom to leave."

It's not just the need for the drills - which is fucked up- it how they are increasingly being conducted that is causing staff and child harm.

Strangely my kids in a Welsh school have been having lockdown drills which frankly they found just bizarre having to practise hiding under tables in their classrooms.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/schools-lockdown-drills-terror-attacks-14467890

It's a terrible situation but there aren't any easy solutions. Banning guns wouldn't solve the problem and it would probably make things a lot worse in the long term. You can't just click your fingers and make the guns disappear, or make a certain type of gun disappear. Those guns exist, people want them, and making them illegal won't stop people getting them.