 In the United States, there are so many mass shootings, including at elementary schools, that a lot of us have just become accustomed to it. It's not like when we see the news, it doesn't hurt, but it's just an expectation at this point. Mass shootings are just a part of the American way of life, and it's a sad state of affairs, but sometimes I think it's really important to escape our bubble and listen to people from outside of the United States, to share their reactions to news about the United States. So I want to share a TikTok that went viral from a teacher in Ireland. Now, he's going to react to this news as a teacher himself and explain how what we allow to happen in this country is inconceivable to him. Take a look. I work in a school in Donegal in Ireland, and I have worked in schools for years, and I've never once been on my way to work and thought to myself, I hope no one shoots all the kids today. Imagine having to send your children to school and you're thinking someone might come in and shoot them all. And the maddest thing about what's going on in America and Texas and stuff, it's happened so many times, like this has happened before, and they're still letting it happen. It's just so confusing for all of us people that aren't from America looking in and thinking, how fucking stupid are you people? Like, how are we going to stop all these shootings? Stop giving people guns. Do you know what I mean? It's just really awful, and it doesn't seem to happen anywhere else because other countries don't allow guns. So, I don't know. Yeah, and I don't know how much he knows about the United States politics, but with his limited knowledge about the US, he's way more intelligent than any Republican politician in Congress. And I'm not sure if he knows that the same people who created this climate where elementary schools are essentially war zones now, they also call themselves pro-life, and they literally are in the process of reducing women to second-class citizenship status just so they can protect fetuses. But actual live human beings, they don't care that they're getting slaughtered. People are dying in this country, tens of thousands every single year because they don't have health care, and they're just like, sorry. I mean, we had a million plus people die due to COVID-19, and we were done with that after like two months. I mean, we are a pro-death culture in this country, and that is because one of two major parties is effectively an organized death cult. That's not saying that Democrats are good, but there is no equivalence there. One is an organized death cult, and the other is a group of cowards who won't fight said organized death cult. But, you know, what people are reacting to around the world is this fact that in the United States, this is a way of life. Mass shootings, unfortunately, are as American as apple pie now. Farron Cousins tweeted out, I dropped my kids off this morning, terrified I may never see them again. They weren't shipping off to war or going on a dangerous expedition in uncharted waters. They were going to elementary school. This is what we've created in America, fear that our kids will die at school, exactly. And this is the climate that Republicans have created for all of us. They've chosen to impose their will on all of us. They've chosen for all of us that barbarity is going to be the norm in the United States. They've chosen that unlimited gun ownership is more important than the lives of human beings. That's what they've chosen, and yet they call themselves pro-life. Isn't it astonishing? Now, what happened in other countries when they saw mass shooting? Let's look at the UK, for example. As Professor Christensen explains, 26 years ago, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, killing 16 kids and a teacher. The UK government responded by enacting tight gun control legislation. In the 9400-plus days since, there have been a total of zero school shootings in the UK. He adds, you may well ask, were there mass school shootings before Dunblane? The answer is no, but the fact that UK government took action after one event shows what I consider to be decisive action. Gun control clearly made it less likely to happen again, and that's the whole point. So just stop for a moment. It's not like the UK is perfect, right? But they responded after one mass shooting. They took decisive action after one mass shooting, and here it's been happening for decades. And we're just saying the same things. Oh, it must be video games or violent movies. It's the same thing. And nobody's willing to say, it's the guns. It's because we have more guns than people in this country. But, you know, the UK isn't just a one-off. This also happened in Australia. They had a mass shooting, and then guess what they did? They took action. As Dr. Cassidy explains last year, Australia marked the 25th anniversary of the country's worst mass shooting in which a lone gunman killed 35 people. Within two weeks, Australia enacted swift and strong gun control legislation. What happened? Australia has had no mass shootings since 1996. And again, Australia is not a perfect country. They have their own political problems, but they have a government that at least functions enough to do the bare minimum, whereas our government is completely and utterly broken to its core. It can't even do the most basic things for its citizens. And this is what we've been dealing with now for a decade. So if anyone who's not an American is wondering, okay, this is another school shooting. Maybe this is going to be the thing that gets lawmakers to finally take action. I promise you it's not. You're going to see some headlines about bipartisan talks, but this is ultimately going to end predictably in nothing being done. And I can say this with confidence because this is what I've seen throughout my entire life. This is what presidents have been responding to throughout my entire life and no action has been taken. For example, take a look at what every single president has said in response to mass shootings. Hillary and I are profoundly shocked and saddened by the tragedy today in Littleton, Southern California by the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Roseburg, Oregon. It's an elementary school in Newton, Texas. Parkland, Florida. Michigan. The prayers of the American people are with you. We are praying for them. Laura and I and many across our nation. Our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and their families. And it's not just Littleton. We know that now. We've had lots and lots and lots of places. We have been through this too many times. Too many years, too many decades now. As I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. School should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. Perhaps now America would wake up to the dimensions of this challenge if it could happen in a place like Littleton. And we could prevent anything like this from happening again. Every single president who's alive today has made the same speech in one way or another. And it has always amounted to nothing. Every single time. And, you know, it's funny that the same week that this happens, the NRA is holding its annual leadership forum featuring the Republican politicians who created this hellscape for us. But don't worry, the NRA is very sad to hear about this mass shooting that they've enabled. And the irony is that guns are banned at this conference from the NRA. I'm not making this up. Guns are literally banned during Trump's speech. And in 2018, they banned guns altogether at this forum because they refused to subject themselves or Donald Trump to the threat that they subject elementary school children to. But you think that if they really believed that a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, then at the NRA leadership forum, wouldn't there be enough good guys with guns to stop a bad guy with a gun? Well, of course not. They don't believe that. They've created this dystopian hellscape for us to live in, but they don't want to subject themselves to that. So one thing that I want to leave you with is an undeniable fact. And you have to process this information and let it sink in. Understand what it means. Every single mass shooting is a policy choice. Every single time this happens, it is specifically because politicians in the United States of America by their unwillingness to act is choosing to let this happen. It is a choice at this point. Do not let them distract you and obfuscate and make it seem as if, oh, it's a lack of mental health or violent video games. We know what this is. It's the gun's stupid correlation equals causation in this instance. That's not always the case. But in this instance, more guns do indeed lead to more gun violence. They know it, which is why they oftentimes will prohibit guns at their events. But what's good for them is not good for us. Protections from, you know, guns for me, but not for thee. Yeah, that's the Republican Party in this country. Again, an organized death cult. Do you enjoy watching independent news shows like the Humanist Report, the Rational National and the Majority Report? But oftentimes YouTube doesn't deliver our videos to your subscription box. Well, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Optout app available right now in the iOS app store coming soon to Android. 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