Justin Gruber’s words have never left me.
The then 15-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School pupil in Florida had lived to tell his story after his friends were murdered during the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre.
Justin was then one of only six pupils who then visited the White House to directly speak to President Donald Trump during a “listening session” about the need for gun control.
Despite still mourning the loss of his pals, he felt a change was coming due to the power of teenagers across the country who were demanding stricter gun laws.
“I think because of the emotion, and what we have experienced, I feel like it makes the President, senators and governors want to do more for us,” he told me.
“We are the next generation. It needs to be safe for every generation to come.
“I think our politicians feel ashamed that they have not acted before. Now they must.”
Despite millions of young people joining Justin in his cause, his words have proven to mean nothing as yet another preventable massacre at an American school has now taken place.
The devastating shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which claimed 21 lives, is another indelible stain on the fabric of US society, seeping in its children’s blood.
Once again, America has surpassed itself in the unthinkable.
With two mass shootings in as many weeks in Texas and New York that killed 31 people, thoughts and prayers are all America has to offer.
Since moving to the States, there have been as many mass shootings as there have been days for me.
I’ve covered them all, from the Washington Navy Yard massacre to the San Bernadino attack, the Orlando Nightclub shooting, the Las Vegas atrocity, as well as the Sutherland Springs Church, Parkland School, Charleston church shooting and Virginia Beach.
Other than the gun, what unites them all is the pathetic lack of action by America’s politicians.
But when you consider it was the case after 20 young children and six adults died at Sandy Hook in 2012, there is little hope for this country.
At the time, President Barack Obama called for new legislative initiatives.
“Surely we can do better than this,” he said, but nothing has happened. Despite his good intentions, he was denied any reform of gun laws by opposing Republicans.
Since the shooting on December 14, 2012, Brit Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan died in the shooting, has become an anti-gun campaigner.
Along with her husband Ian, they co-founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organisation that focuses on honouring victims of gun violence and providing awareness and education to prevent these shootings from happening again.
“To honour my son’s death, as well as his life, I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to save other [lives],” Nicole has said.
“I don’t want any other parent to ever be in my shoes and to know their child could have lived.”
But ten years hundreds more parents are. Tuesday’s massacre is not the last, only the latest.
But as I write this now, I can confidently say nothing will be done. Absolutely nothing. My almost ten years in America have taught me that.
With each shooting, America’s spineless politicians, like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, emerge to offer their meaningless prays and condolences.
He has done so again this week to those 21 now grieving families while the blood of their loved ones drips from his hands.
Only recently, I listened to Abbott boast about signing abortion legislation he says protects the unborn. Well, what about the kids that are already here?
What are you going to do to protect them? What about the 19 children you lost on Tuesday?
And to America, what about the 26 lost at Sandy hook? When is this going to end?
Instead of all the chest-pounding about passing abortion legislation, US politicians - overwhelmingly Republican - do nothing to protect children.
At some point in time, Americans have to say enough is enough. It’s got to end.
But it won’t while they have a dysfunctional Congress that can’t and won’t get anything done.
People need to rise up and throw these weak, cowardly politicians like Abbott out of office.
People should not lose sight of the fact that only last year, it was he who signed a wide-ranging law that ended the requirement for Texans to obtain a license to carry handguns.
It now allows virtually anyone over the age of 21 to carry one. In addition, the landmark law made the state one of the largest to adopt a “constitutional carry”
law that basically eliminates most restrictions on the ability to carry handguns.
That is the kind of politician America elects.
Voters here are their own enemies, whose ballots ensure they keep on killing themselves.
In a vicious cycle, such as sales of firearms rocketing when a massacre happens, Americans keep getting guns, loading them and pulling the trigger.
All this while electing political leaders who promise action but are never held accountable.
This may be the suicide of which Abraham Lincoln famously spoke so clearly off in 1838.
Only in April did it emerge that after decades car accidents are no longer the leading cause of death among children. Guns are.
Overall firearm-related deaths increased by 13.5 per cent between 2019 and 2020. However, such fatalities for those one to 19-year-old jumped nearly 30 per cent, according to a New England Journal of Medicine research letter.
Researchers analysed data collected by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, showing a record 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the US in 2020.
About 10 per cent of those deaths — 4,357 in total — were children.
The figures represent a 25 per cent increase from five years prior and a 43 per cent increase from 2010.
Firearms deaths have become a staple fixture in American life, with the 1.5 million between 1968 and 2017 higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War for Independence in 1775.
America has more guns than any other nation in the world – and that number in civilian hands - 393 million - continues to grow each year.
The country has more firearms than people.
Almost a third of Americans say they own a gun. It means that more than 81.4 million Americans have at least one.
The average gun owner here has five, while nearly 22 per cent of gun owners only have a single firearm.
It is astonishing that individuals are allowed to arm themselves with an arsenal of firearms designed for the battlefield, not the street.
But according to the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) weekly mantra, more guns equal less mayhem. It is absurd.
Almost as absurd how despite Tuesday’s school massacre, the NRA’s annual meeting is still set to be held on Friday just 270 miles away from the school.
Shamefully former President Donald Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Abbott are among those still scheduled to address the gathering.
America should not kid itself. The issue is not just confined to the classroom.
Take a walk today in New York, the tourist capital of the world, and you place yourself at risk of getting shot. Crime is spiralling out of control, and America has no idea what to do.
Preventing killers like Salvador Ramos from arming to the teeth is imperative if America is to “insure domestic Tranquillity”, as envisioned by the founding fathers.
But precisely, the opposite is true - especially when those in power are awarded an A+ rating from the NRA following their pro-gun speeches and legislative behaviour.
One of the most critical tasks for a government is to keep its citizens, especially its children, safe on the streets and, more importantly, in their schools.
It seems every other developed country can fulfil this basic need, but the most advanced nation in the world cannot.
The blood of all these victims covers the carpet of Congress, yet its pathetic politicians continue to treat it as a floor on which to dance on the graves of those children killed.
They have single handily turned the American dream into an enduring nightmare.
