I do not live in the United States. Neither am I its citizen.
Yet what happened at a school in Uvalde, Texas recently angered me so much.
Naturally, it made me wonder.
If I'm angry and I'm not even an American, how are people over there not angry enough to tighten gun control?
Many Americans are angry, but since mass shootings are becoming commonplace there, and gun restrictions are being loosened in some states, perhaps they need more people to be angry.
There is nothing logical about allowing 18-year-olds to purchase assault rifles, yet a kid can turn 18 and buy one. State-approved. America-approved.
Guns have no multi-purpose use. Take knives, for instance. Use it to stab someone and the knife becomes a weapon.
Take a baseball bat, even. Use it to bash someone's skull in and it becomes a weapon.
But, knives and baseball bats have other uses. So if stabbing cases are on the rise, nobody is going to call for the government to regulate knife sales.
But guns have absolutely no other use whatsoever. There are no guns out there that double as waffle makers or pipe wrenches.
Guns have a single purpose. To kill.
So what is the rationale behind allowing 18-year-olds to purchase guns?
Not only that, what is the rationale behind making it easy for any private citizen to buy a gun?
Self-defence? How many private citizens, putting aside gangbangers and criminals, can say "I would not be alive today had it not been for the AK-47 I sleep with"?
America loves "keeping its people safe" by deploying troops overseas. They've been selling the idea that US troops abroad have been keeping Americans at home safe for years.
It makes one wonder how Americans are being kept safe at home when 19 children were gunned down by an 18-year-old?
These are not kids in a war-torn country. These are kids in the so-called "land of the free, home of the brave".
These 19 children lost their lives because a "bullied" teenager was able to buy assault rifles after he turned 18 and managed to make his way inside the school to shoot it up.
I make no apologies for not caring about the shooter's troubled back story. That is a different argument altogether. There is no way the bullying justifies a mass shooting.
The problem is that many Americans and American politicians refuse to tighten gun laws. They insist on falling back on the Constitution, written "in ancient times".
America needs to keep guns out of people's hands, not make it easier for them to stock up on weapons.
Wake up, America. How many more kids must die in the pursuit of knowledge in the land of the free and home of the brave?
The writer is NST News Editor, Online