"When I took office, I hoped I would not have to do it again."
This is how US President Joe Biden opened his remarks to the nation on the collective memorial plaque, which lists countless horrific massacres, most of them in schools.
On May 14, an 18-year-old Peyton Gendron entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, murdered 10 people and broadcast the shooting live.
The principal of the school where he studied said he had previously threatened to shoot his classmates.
In the White House, and in all public institutions across the United States, the flag was then lowered to half-mast.
Again the flag was flown in the White House at half-mast, and in the media hall stood President Biden who knew loss in his life, and on the verge of tears said, "When, in the name of God, shall we stand before the arms lobby? When will we do what needs to be done?" "Violating the laws restricting the sale of guns."
The massacre in the town of Yuvaldi shocked the Americans.
19 of the 22 murdered are elementary school children, small children, just like the massacre of children at Sandy Hawk Elementary School in Connecticut a decade ago, in which 20 first-graders and six other workers were murdered.
Even then, former President Barack Obama came to the school and in a voice choked with tears said, "We can not stand this reality anymore. We can not say that politics is too complicated to change reality."
So he said.
The tangled politics of the world's great power, it turns out, can not be changed by its presidents, certainly when it comes to the most powerful lobby, the NRA, the "National Rifle Organization."
Obama at the time presented a plan to reduce arms, which includes a background check on arms buyers and a limit on the number of bullets that can be sold, but at the end of the day each state legislates its laws and restrictions.
Across the “red” (Republican) states there is almost no restriction that cannot be circumvented.
In Walmart chain stores in these countries you can buy food products, huge TV screens and also weapons, in any size imaginable.
Texas is the best example of that "complicated politics."
In May 2018, a 17-year-old student murdered 10 students and injured 13 others at a school in Santa Fe, near Houston, Texas.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott then proposed enacting a law he called a "red flag."
Under the proposal, the state court could effectively deny the right to bear arms, and even confiscate it from those who pose a "danger to themselves and the environment."
The proposal, needless to say, did not pass, did not even come to legislation.
Deputy Governor Dan Patrick and so-called "right-wing activists" persuaded the governor to abide by local laws and the will of the residents.
Who is the flightless governor who would be willing to put his political future in front of the vast arms lobby?
It ended with a proposal for an examination of a clean psychiatric past that the purchaser should present to the arms store, and equip public school teachers with weapons.
A year later there was a massacre in El Paso, Texas, with 23 dead at the Walmart branch in the city. Three years later the massacre took place at Rob Elementary School in Yuvaldi, Texas. Again the flag is lowered to half-mast. And promises - "turn pain into action," a promise no former president has yet been able to implement, and here's another proof of the White House's hopeless struggle against the American Arms Union.
A stranger will not understand this
At a time when the sky is clear, Friday will be the annual NRA conference in Houston, Texas.
Three keynote speakers will speak at a conference of the powerful U.S. lobby. Former President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott (who thought he was restricting arms sales in his country) and Texas senator Ted Cruz. Rise on Friday: Establish increased vigilance in schools, but do not restrict sales.
"Complicated politics" has never looked more cynical.
After all, everything is enshrined in law.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution, approved in 1791, received a broad interpretation 14 years ago (June 2008) by the Supreme Court, which ruled by a majority of five judges against four that "every citizen has the right to possess weapons for personal use."
Judge Antonin Scalia reasoned The decision that the Second Amendment protects the individual's right to possess a weapon regardless of whether he belongs to a military body, or for use for legal purposes such as self-defense inside his home.A stranger will not understand this.
After all, in the United States, the sale of alcohol is forbidden to anyone under the age of 21, and the laws against the consumption of alcohol by minors are among the most severe in the Western world.
Every person, in a restaurant, bar or liquor store, is required to present a driver’s license.
In some U.S. states, alcohol is not allowed in supermarkets. It is forbidden to drive with alcohol in a vehicle, not even with a closed bottle of wine, unless it has been placed in the trunk.
But weapons?
It's a different story, it's the story of America refusing to relinquish the right to bear arms in self-defense, and it can be told (even if incomprehensibly) only if one delves into the past, character, and endless expanses of the great United States.
Houses far from any settlement, huge farms in nowhere, luxurious and secluded villas in a thick forest.
It's a way of life.
After all, Hollywood knows how to tell it best, for decades.
***
On the eve of Passover, I was a guest at an order to which a Mormon family from Utah was also invited - parents and two young boys, ages 9 and 11.
The proud parents proudly told diners about reindeer hunting trips they make in the woods, detailing how important it is to teach them from an early age how to protect themselves from dangers.
The feeling of security with weapons at home, from intruders, is worth the price.
And this is perhaps an expression of the root of the debate.
What is more important, a false sense of security, with a weapon in the closet?
Or the danger of your children coming back from school in a coffin?
Were we wrong?
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