Posted above is Childish Gambino's aka Donald Glover video for This is America. There are some blatant references about gun violence in America. In one scene you see Glover mowing down a church choir with an automatic weapon which one cannot help but draw parallels to the 2015 shooting in a South Carolina church in which nine people were murdered.
But perhaps less obvious and maybe even more poignant is the 17 seconds of silence in the middle, where you see all the school kids that were dancing with Glover disappear. It has been widely speculated that that was to pay tribute to the 17 victims of the more recent Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Well, unsurprisingly thoughts, prayers, and moments of silence is not enough to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. Reports are coming out again of another school shooting today. This time in Santa Fe, Texas where, at the time I am writing this, there have been reports of up to 10 people dead.
Do I think this is a gun issue? Nope. This is a mental health issue. Ban all the guns you want, but hurt people hurt people. I live in Canada where our gun laws are quite strict. However just last month, in my home city of Toronto, a man rented a van and then proceeded to run over and kill 10 people on one of the city's busiest streets.
Of course tighter gun regulations would help, no question. But this needs to start from the bottom up with helping those with mental health issues to prevent any sort of attack be it with guns, knives, vehicles or otherwise.
L.