Letters | Imagine a United States where children don’t die in school shootings

Readers discuss how the experience of other countries shows gun safety legislation makes school massacres avoidable, and the regrettable way the US is exceptional

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Children mourn for victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 26. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:30pm, 31 May 2022Updated: 3:41pm, 31 May 2022

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When you wake up in the morning, fill your mug with coffee for that awakening sip and pick up this newspaper, be glad, because whatever your situation, it is good to know you lived to see another day. That isn’t the case for 21 people at a Texas elementary school. Back in the day, what did you hope to be when you grew up – a firefighter, doctor or teacher? Nineteen children only had the chance to dream, but not to fulfil their aspirations.

Imagine going to school to pick up your child, only to be told they are no longer alive. It’s hard to imagine – most of us haven’t been through this as children usually outlive their parents.

This latest incident in the US is not isolated, but one of over 200 mass shooting this year in the country, and a repeat of the heartbreaking shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut 10 years ago. Imagine being a survivor of that incident and seeing it happen all over again. What hope can such a person have in their society?

Millions of people die every year, yet these school shootings generate an outpouring of emotions, because they are unwarranted.

After a mass shooting in New Zealand, the country promptly passed sensible legislation to tighten gun laws, banning military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently said that while there were “legitimate needs for guns” – for example, to protect biodiversity – there was no need for military-grade weapons to achieve that end.

Here, in China, including in the special administrative regions, gun control legislation is quite robust. Even the number of people shot by law enforcement is relatively low, which could be attributed to the fact the police officers know it is unlikely a perpetrator is armed and thus there is no need to resort to deadly force.