Dwain Northey (Gen X)

What kind of grotesque nation have we become when children are gunned down in their classrooms and our leaders respond with “thoughts and prayers” as if platitudes were bulletproof vests? This is not Gaza. This is not Falluja. These are not war zones, yet America tolerates daily carnage on its streets, in its churches, in its schools. We tolerate it because cowards in suits—politicians bought and paid for by the gun lobby—decided long ago that campaign donations matter more than children’s lives.

Let’s say it clearly: the United States is the only developed country where mass shootings are routine. Not occasional. Routine. Our children practice active shooter drills as often as fire drills. Imagine telling a child in France or Japan or Australia to duck under their desk because a gunman might storm their classroom at any moment. They’d look at you like you were insane. And they’d be right. Other countries have mental illness. Other countries have violent media. Other countries even have guns. But only America has leaders so spineless, so morally bankrupt, that they let an entire generation grow up with the expectation that they may die at school.

The excuse-makers are relentless. “It’s a mental health crisis.” “It’s video games.” “It’s broken families.” Wrong. This is a gun crisis, engineered and sustained by politicians who cower before the NRA and its blood-soaked checkbook. They wring their hands, weep crocodile tears on camera, and then turn around and block even the mildest reforms—background checks, red flag laws, limits on weapons of war—because doing the right thing would cost them their next campaign ad buy.

Every mass shooting is not just a tragedy; it is a political choice. It is the choice of senators who block legislation. It is the choice of representatives who parrot gun lobby talking points. It is the choice of governors who sign laws making it easier, not harder, for unstable individuals to carry assault rifles in public. When they stand in front of cameras after the next massacre and say, “This is not the time to talk about policy,” what they mean is: “This is not the time to threaten my donor pipeline.”

And while they posture, parents bury children. Survivors carry scars you cannot see. Teachers prepare to throw themselves in front of bullets because adults in charge refuse to do their jobs. America is not exceptional in this. America is deranged.

We must stop pretending this is some unsolvable riddle. Australia acted after one mass shooting. New Zealand acted. Britain acted. Meanwhile, America buries its dead and shrugs. The Second Amendment was not intended as a suicide pact, but that’s exactly how our leaders interpret it—every gun sale sacred, every coffin of a child expendable.

This isn’t freedom. It’s a moral collapse. It’s national rot. Until we decide that the lives of children matter more than the profits of gun manufacturers and the cowardice of politicians, we will continue to live in a country where schools resemble combat zones. And the blood on the floor isn’t just from the bullets—it’s on the hands of every lawmaker who looked at this epidemic and chose money over life.