I'm not sure what it takes to get a serious debate about guns going in the United States. I'm by no means certain that the slaughter of twenty children, some only kindies, would cause the NRA to bat an eyelid, or refrain from issuing assonine sermons or advice. I have no idea why a nation so great as America, whose people and founding principles I admire, can't deal with such a basic question as this is.

In Australia, we have had this debate and the guns, for the most part, lost out. I'm sure that the debate will come again and I'm certain that the gun lobby here will try to push the boundaries. But our situation is chicken-feed compared to the vast, crazy, semi-automatic heaven and hell that happens across the Pacific. When a national organisation says that the way to deal with gun massacres is to arm everyone, then you know that there are folks, who claim to be thinking individuals, that have a very slim purchase on reality.

For those poor dead littlies in Newtown Conn, for their friends and families and the shocked remnant, my prayers, inadequate as they are, are for you. May God bless you in your deep hurt and mourning. May He bring comfort.