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Another School Slaying
And nothing will change
The US second amendment has the blood of innocents on its pages. And it increases with every passing year. Getting shot for going to school is a uniquely American privilege. Is this the price of so called freedom? That Libertas, the Lady of Liberty, will eat her children? Bon appetit.
This time the school was in Texas at Robb Elementary. So far the death toll stands at 21 with many more wounded. Texas is one of the biggest consumers of firearms. One of its officials recently remarked on it dropping to number two in the gun consumer ranks. He urged fellow Texans to do better. Well, they have now.
Among the civilised Western democracies, it is only in the US where gun ownership has become such an unalienable right, it’s become a weird fetish. Owning a gun is a phallic symbol of the all powerful Adamic rebirth, standing with hand on hips and close to his piece, at the centre of American cultural and mythic experience. It is yet another perversion in the relentless quest for greater individualism — e pluribus unum (many made one) has never seemed so far away.
The figures speak for themselves. The US, by a wide margin, is number one ranking for countries with civilian gun owners, far surpassing its closest rival, Yemen. Unsurprisingly, the US holds the record for the greatest number of deaths…
