America stopped again last week.
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On Valentine’s Day, Florida was the latest state to make headlines for a school shooting.
It was the 18th school shooting in the United States so far this year. Eighteen school shootings in 45 days.
And as the whole of America stopped to grieve for the lives that were lost, and the many more forever altered, the rest of the world paused, too.
As we soaked up the enormity of the event from news reports and television broadcasts, the question that anchored many conversations was, how?
Not just how can this happen, but how can America continue to let this happen.
And how many more times must it happen before the country adjusts its gun control laws.
After every mass shooting, the same conversations begin. They never seem to gain much traction.
In the wake of this tragedy, the conversation feels louder, even from the other side of the world.
The Boston Globe took a stand with its February 16 edition.
“We know what will happen next”, its stark front page declared. It was not a tribute to the attack that had just happened, but to the next one, one the masthead says will be inevitable.
Perhaps the debate in America is turning. It certainly appears the younger generations do not hold the second amendment as close as their parents do.
Students who survived last week’s shooting have spoken out strongly and publicly, calling on lawmakers to change gun laws.
It appears that instead of candle-light vigils, the direct and indirect peers of the victims have turned their grief into action, protesting under the slogan “never again”.
In Australia, and indeed Tasmania, we are mostly removed from the situation. The coming generation will not remember an Australia without the level of gun control that we have now.
So while there may not be a direct action or lesson that we in the Land Down Under can take from what is happening in the US right now, we can still gain a perspective.
We can be thankful shooting drills are not part of the lessons that our children learn in school.
And whether you agree with gun control laws or not, we can be thankful that our children are not this week mourning the murder of their schoolmates.
