There’s blood on the hands of U.S.A’s politicians

America is again forced to have a difficult conversation about guns after a deadly school shooting. But our schools show they’re missing the point.

In just five months of 2022, the United States of America has already experienced 214 mass shootings.

That’s mass shooting, not just individuals being shot — according to US non-profit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings in the country. Thirty of those happened at schools.

Read that again.

Memorials for victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP

A boy returns to his seat after children were called up by Father Eduardo Morales as US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: AFP

Right now, in the aftermath of the latest shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas during which 19 children and two adults were gunned down by a teenager with several weapons, the country’s politicians are trying to blame a back door into the school that they claim was unlocked.

While many citizens are begging for gun control — similar to those Australia implemented in 1996, despite strong resistance — Texan Senator, Ted Cruz, would rather talk about doors.

“Don’t have all of these unlocked back doors,” said Cruz, in complete seriousness and without a hint of embarrassment. “Have one door, into and out of the school.”

In fact, a lot of Republicans would very much like to see all schools just have one entrance in and out — like that ISN’T a logistical nightmare and completely irrelevant to the actual issue.

If a locked door is truly all that stands between primary school children and a mass murderer wielding a gun, then you have to wonder why Australian schools — with their multiple entrances that, in my experience, are never locked while the school is open — has managed to escape mass shootings targeting young children.

In fact, there haven’t been any mass shootings here of the kind seen regularly in US since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

Something just isn’t right.

US Senator Ted Cruz, having the audacity to attend a vigil for the Robb Elementary School victims, then blame an unlocked door. Picture: Chandan Khanna /AFP.

It’s no secret that the US has long held themselves above all other countries, while they proudly wave their national flag, sing the words “land of the free” with their hands over their hearts and continue shoving the rhetoric of the “American dream” down our throats.

Never mind that the American Dream has been proven time and again to be a fallacy that makes the poor, poorer, no matter how hard they work. People have been writing essays about this for decades.

Never mind that these ‘freedoms’ were written into a legal document by one type of man only, back in a time when women and non-white people were barely considered human. Yet, that same Constitution is still used as a shield against change.

Never mind that a global pandemic shed light on a broken healthcare system that leaves the underprivileged to rot, as well as an outrageous economic inequality.

Never mind that millions of people died because of this pandemic because the country didn’t want to wear masks or get vaccinated.

Yet, even many of the countries the US would consider unsafe or even ‘scary’ places to live, don’t experience these mass shootings that target strangers as they shop, worship or go to school at anywhere near the same rate as America.

People mourn after the Robb Elementary School shooting. Picture: Reuters/Marco Bello

Take Brazil, for example. A country that struggles with violence has still only had two school shootings this year — the same number as Canada, and a small fraction of those experienced in the US.

In Nigeria, where 276 school girls were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2014, there has only been four school shootings.

Gun-control advocates hold a vigil outside of the National Rifle Association (NRA) headquarters. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

It seems like the US would do well to stop pointing fingers while its politicians continue to ignore the safety of their own people just so a privileged few — probably the very same who can afford to live in gated communities and send their kids to private schools with top security — can have access to deadly playthings.

There is blood on their hands, all in the name of maintaining their power. But tell me again how they’re a developed nation?

Australia is far from perfect — institutional racism, climate change policies, immigration policies and many more that I don’t have space to name. But one thing we do have is our politicians took a stand on guns, to the detriment of their own political careers and, in the case of John Howard, wearing a bullet proof vest for personal safety against the backlash.

It’s really the very least public servants could do for their people, so what the hell is going on with the USA?