I'm sure everyone remembers the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut when 20 year old Adam Lanza shot dead 20 children and 6 staff after previously killing his own mother. That was on 14th December 2012, by New Year's Eve there had been a further 108 gun fatalities in the US. To date since Sandy Hook there have been more than 82,000 gun deaths in the US as a whole. Shocking figures indeed yet hardly surprising when you consider that the US has 5% of the World's population who collectively own more than 50% of the World's privately owned weapons.

President Obama has done everything in his power to try and change American attitudes to gun control but has been defeated at every turn, not by public opinion but by the NRA and again by the US Senate. Following Sandy Hook nine out of ten Americans voted to support expanding background checks on all firearms purchases. This was backed up by legislation introduced to Congress via the Manchin-Toomey Amendment along with an Assault Weapons Ban, both were defeated in the Senate in April 2013. New York, Connecticut and Maryland are the only three states that have enacted new restrictions to their existing gun laws, most States made no changes and unbelievably ten States actually relaxed their gun ownership laws.

The NRA statement after the shootings that 'The only response to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun' seems to be the opinion reflected in the Senate's actions. Is it any wonder nothing has changed?