When having a nice meal with two university students on their summer holidays, it is hard to fully enjoy the family event when the recent tragedies in Ohio and Texas are brought up as topics. As a mother of three I can not help but visualise the parents who have just lost the most precious loved ones in their lives in an instant due to the abhorrent decisions of an individual with a lethal weapon.
Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, where the victims largely consisted of six and seven year old children, nothing substantial has occurred to truly reform laws or enforce gun control. Ultimately, this shows that while the USA may be the centre point of Western civilisation and democracy, the value that they place on human life is disturbingly low.
Even with two mass shootings on the same day, and nearly 30 combined casualties, I highly doubt that President Trump will take any action to address the root of the issue. The behaviour of their current leader, a president who instigates racial tension either deliberately or by a consequence of his callous comments indicate that there are major issues in how the USA is governed.
One of the students expressed his opinion that he is lucky to live in Britain, a country where guns are fully controlled, and expressed the view that if the British people were able to access weapons, perhaps “milkshake throwing” would become something much more sinister. Perhaps unfairly, many choose to compare Boris Johnson, our new Prime Minister, to President Trump. Though some of Boris’ past comments may be unfairly scrutinised, it is certain he would not use the incitement of racial hatred to feed into a populist tactic. Therefore, post-Brexit Britain will uphold liberal values so that the country may prosper, becoming a beacon of democracy for the Western world. After Brexit occurs, the government will not only represent the 52% who voted to leave in Brexit, but will also represent the other 48% as well, and we will build a meritocratic society that reveres liberal conservative values.
I wonder what Boris Johnson would say over the phone to President Trump when offering his personal condolences to the families who lost their lives in the shootings; Do or Die, change the attitude to gun laws — that comes to mind.
