Sixteen primary school children and a teacher were shot dead in Dunblane, Scotland.
Fifteen other kids were wounded during their PT lesson, before the shooter took his own life.
A month later, a gunman shot dead 35 people and wounded 23 others in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
Both incidents happened in 1996 and saw the UK and Australia pass strict gun control laws almost immediately afterwards.
The result? Neither country has experienced a mass shooting since and currently have among the lowest gun ownership and gun crime statistics in the world.
Compare that to the USA, which has already had 214 mass shootings this year.
Twenty-seven of those took place at schools, last week’s one in Texas having been one of the deadliest.
In fact, firearms are now officially the number one cause of death for American children and teens.
A cursory layman’s consideration automatically leads one to believe that strict gun laws result in less gun crime; fewer, if any mass shootings.
Even US president Joe Biden conceded that when the country had a temporary ban on assault rifles last year, mass shootings went down, but then almost tripled again the moment the ban lifted.
The evidence couldn’t be any more obvious. But many of America’s conservative politicians refuse to believe it and won’t pass laws making it just a little bit harder to walk into a supermarket and put an automatic assault rifle into the trolley with their weekly groceries.
It actually sounds stupidly absurd to think there’s a country where such a thing is even possible; doubly so that it is America.
In fact, just last year, the governor of Texas signed new laws that got rid of the few remaining licensing and training requirements for citizens wanting to own guns.
All of this has resulted in America having more guns than citizens – 400 million of them, equating to more than 40% of all the guns in the entire world.
It has dumped the land of the free into what is an irreversible epidemic of gun violence, allowing for children to be massacred inside their daily sanctuaries.
Followed by politicians shrugging their shoulders with standard, scripted “thoughts and prayers.”
Not even the horrific news of small children being gunned down inside their classrooms can seemingly shake them to their senses.
And that’s because they fear losing votes, if they disagree with what their voters want – more guns.
Yes, leaders must listen to their electorate. But there comes a time when they must lead and guide, for the betterment of society.
Like was proven after 1996 when Scottish and Australian leaders convinced their electorate of what the right thing is to do.
Besides, 90% of American voters already approve of at least simple background checks for those wanting to buy a firearm.
They can easily be convinced to take that sentiment a little further, one step at a time. But obviously there is no political will.
The rest of the world needs to guard against going down this route, where politicians are more eager to be liked and stay elected, than they are in truly leading.
It doesn’t only apply to guns, although it does provide for a very strong argument for how truly depraved matters can get, if we don’t protect our own moral values and insist on even higher standards from our leaders. Because if the bodies of children in classrooms won’t convince them, then nothing will.
In the meantime, America has now become a petri dish of political patronage and greed.
In this case, a lobby group called the National Rifle Association (NRA) has a very strong lobby group that convinces, cajoles and pays politicians a lot of money to keep the laws unchanged.
Many of those politicians even attended the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston, Texas, on Saturday to show their ongoing support.
All while 19 white coffins are being prepared so families can say an avoidable and final goodbye.