'If the murder of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut didn't prompt the US Congress to pass stricter regulations on firearms, writes Tim Krieder for the Week, then the Isla Vista killings certainly won't.
"Look, we've collectively decided, as a country, that the occasional massacre is OK with us," writes the author of the book We Learn Nothing, a collection of essays and cartoons about the "dark truths of the human condition". "It's the price we're willing to pay for our precious Second Amendment freedoms."
He continues:
We're content to forfeit the lives of a few dozen schoolkids a year as long as we get to keep our guns. The people have spoken, in a cheering civics-class example of democracy in action.
He doesn't blame the National Rifle Association or politicians for the situation. They're just capitalising on the apathy of a US public that doesn't care enough about the issue to do anything about it.
If this is going to change, people will have to do more than mouth empty condemnations and make calls to "do something". They would have to take action - becoming single-issue voters, donating money to gun-control groups or writing their politicians, for example.
If not, then Americans should stop "pretending to care", he says. The next time a mass shooting occurs, he writes, let's just "skip the histrionics":
No pro forma shock, condolence photo ops, sombre speeches, flags at half-mast, meaningless noises from liberals about legislation, meaningless counter-noises from the NRA about armed guards in elementary schools. Why bother going through the motions of soul-searching when we know very well there's nothing to search?'
(From BBCOnline)
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