You would’ve needed to exist in a vacuum chamber this sunny weekend not to have at least heard of another mass shooting in the United States. And at the rate our American cousins are unravelling with easy access to high power firearms, a host of mental health issues and an exponentially growing political divide, perhaps its for the best you stay secluded from the grisly images and handheld, on-the-scene video feeds of groups of innocent people getting blown away in cold blood on a daily basis.

This corner wishes they would’ve been able to avoid even a snippet of the social media coverage of brutally slain children on Saturday.

A gunman with an AR-15 assault rifle -you know, the death tool U.S. lawmakers and Senators entrenched by the gun lobby promote by way of pins and tie clips on their suits- attended a mall Saturday 25 miles outside of Dallas, Texas and began opening fire on unarmed civilians at an outlet mall. The Allen, Texas mall shooting was the second deadliest mass shooting in the United States in 2023 and marks the 201st such mass shooting according gunviolencearchive.org .

By the end of the weekend, there had been another half dozen shootings with more than one victim including a pair in California where one person was killed and 10 injured in sperate incidents. Approximately ten times the number of Americans who died on 9/11 are killed each year in preventable gun fatalities. There are certainly other countries where guns and gun ownership are popular. We know our country is a sporting nation and Prince Edward County is no exception to the portion of our Canadian community that religiously heads out to deer and duck blinds every fall.

There are about 30 guns per 100 Canadians and we wager the overwhelming majority use them to hunt beast and fowl.

But compare that to the nearly 90 guns per 100 U.S. citizens and you begin to understand why a number of western countries and Amnesty International have issued travel warnings for people travelling to the U.S. due to gun violence and active shooter situations. Our friends on the other side of the 49th parallel have a malignant infatuation with guns thanks in part to that borne rebellious spirit emanating from the American Revolution and the second amendment to their constitution that allows citizens the right to have “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Of course this amendment and the Bill of Rights were written in the days of ball and musket and during a period when the Founding Fathers couldn’t have possibly envisioned high capacity magazines and pyrrhic war between political idealogies that grip citizenry in a cold, isolating embrace.

Children’s blood ran on to the sidewalks outside an H&M store in Allen on Saturday, just like it did at schools in Uvlade, Parkland, Sandy Hook and Columbine. And it will again in spite the public hand wringing and the “thoughts and prayers” brigade ambling towards any available television news camera. To echo the sentiments of long lost brothers and sisters to the south who are fighting for sensible gun control, it’s the guns. It’s always been the guns.

It’s our lasting hope one day caring Americans find the peace they seek by way of stricter gun control through unification in the desire to protect children by putting brakes around gun purchase and ownership coupled with a national mental health strategy alongside a dose of love thy neighbour.

Because we love you America. We just despise what you are doing to yourselves. And it’s horrifying to watch.

-Jason Parks