The death of 20 innocent children and 6 adults in an elementary school in Connecticut, again demonstrates the absurdity of access to, and possession of firearms, especially high powered military style assault rifles by citizens of the US.
How many more innocent kindergarten and primary (elementary) school children will have to die unneceassrily before America re-examines the “right to bear arms”. Ask any US citizen about gun ownership, and they will remind you that the right to bear arms is enshrined in the 2nd amendment to their constitution. One needs to remember that this document was enacted in 1787, when the United States was emerging from the War of Independance with the British. The United States was very much a different place then than it is today, often lawless and fontier like. There was no army at the time, therefore “a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” It could therefore be argued that now a large, well trained and technically superior army is in place in the US, the 2nd Amendment is no longer valid. Gun control in the US is often a piecemeal affair which often means minimal or no control. I suspect the ‘founding fathers’ didn’t have the needless killing of children in mind when the Constitution was written.
America, I suspect, is in a no-win situation. Americans remain deeply mistrusting of their government, public administrators, their neighbours and minorities (both racial and religious). It never ceases to amaze me how they think that the solution to that fear and paranoia is the ownership of guns, when the real solution is the removal of those guns (and thus the associated crime) from their society. However should gun ownership be “outlawed” tomorrow, the chance of actually disarming America would be nigh on impossible, because of the sheer number of guns in public hands, and the reluctance to hand them in.
American paranoia knows no bounds.
In the meantime, 20 families will mourn the tragic loss of a young life, senselessly cut down by a gun toting “crazy”. I am saddened by this tragic occurrence, the loss of a child’s life is something that should not, and need not occur.
But what saddens me, nay, angers me further; is a realisation of the fact that nothing will change. Platitudes will be made to the grieving parents by politicians, administrators, psycologists and the like, but in the end the root cause (gun ownership), will be ignored.
To the parents of those children so tragically killed, I offer my deepest and sincerest condolences.
Words, By George! 
It only requires a divisive situation to arise in the US and a spirited firebrand of a charismatic leader or two and there is an armed infra populace ready for another civil war in the place.
I suspect you are correct Tony. With all those guns readily available the potential exists for just that; civil war. And what better cause than gun control to get it started.
I was once told that America became decadent before it became civilised. I’m not sure it was ever “civilised”.