Ban the guns, end the madness

Yesterday I watched the Christmas performance of the 3 and 4 year olds in our Nursery. Each group sung a different song.
The children were so excited the songs seemed to explode out of them like slightly- out -of- time, slightly -out -of tune musical fireworks.
They have  practiced the actions to go with the songs for weeks and even though some of them did the actions in the wrong order or for the wrong song, it didn't matter.
 One boy was so excited he sang the whole thing jumping up and down  with his back to the audience.
And parents watched proudly, smiling, laughing crying a little bit.
 For some of them, it was the first time they had ever seen their children "perform."
Every year I am amazed at how something so simple can be so unforgettably touching.
 But this year, hanging over it all was the shadow a different  Christmas concert  on the other side of the Atlantic.
 The one that was rehearsed with just as much excited, happy anticipation.
The concert that was never performed  because a crazy, unhappy, man walked into a school, gun in hand, and opened fire, killing as many children as he could.
 And even though I am a complete stranger and couldn't possibly have known any of those children, my mother's heart hurt so much I could hardly breathe.
 I imagined kissing my children goodbye, not knowing it was for the last time.
I imagined standing outside the school gates,  hoping and hoping that the next child to emerge would be mine.
And it's not just sadness that I feel but a bubbling fury.
Mass shootings are only possible if you have a gun.
 And while guns are so easy to come by in America, there will be no end to the murders
. Shooting is not for fun.
It's not a leisure activity.
 If you own a gun, you have the capacity to kill someone.
" It's not guns that kill people, it's people that kill people," shout the pro-gun lobby from the rooftops and I am stunned by the short-sighted stupidity of those words.
Because it is not all people but only  "people with guns," who can kill so many people so easily .
 Of course it has to be a human who pulls the trigger.  but we hand them the tools for mass murder and pretend to be surprised when that's exactly what they are used for.
If they couldn't get hold of a gun, they wouldn't have a trigger to pull.
We can't stop people from being people but we can stop making it easy for people to become mass murderers.
I know banning the sale of firearms in America is an impossible dream.
It is a mountain so high and so impassable and guarded by so many powerful people that no one dares try.
But the greatest change begins with the tiniest step.
"In order for evil to triumph, good men must do nothing."
 It's time for the " good men ( and women)," of America to put on their bullet-proof walking boots and take the first step.
 It's time to make these young, innocent victims the last.
 It's time to ban the sale of guns.

Make it end.