| It's hard to watch a friend make the same mistake over and over again — and change nothing. The tragedy that unfolded last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has appalled America's allies around the world, not least because it came as a surprise to almost nobody. After all, there have been 27 shootings at American schools so far this year, and more than 200 mass shootings overall. Once again, thoughts and prayers have poured in from global leaders. Among the messages of shock and grief were a few comments that perhaps express what the rest of the global population really thinks. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was deeply saddened by the news but went on to call out the US government's hypocrisy. Pointing out the fact that over the past 25 years, the US has failed to pass a single gun-control act, he said: "How can one expect the US government, who doesn't even care about the human rights of its own people, to genuinely concern itself with the human rights situation in other countries?" It is, of course, pretty hypocritical of China, with its own terrible human-rights record; its leaders will take any chance they get to deflect from that and make the US appear weak. More valid — though less overt — criticism came from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who oversaw her country's swift banning of military-style semiautomatic weapons after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch. "We saw something that wasn't right and we acted on it," she said. With guns now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents, the US appears to the rest of the world not as a modern democracy, but a lawless Wild West. In fact, it's worse than that, because the Wild West actually had gun control. Frank Wilkinson has explored that here. The US equips schools with $400,000 security systems that fill corridors with smoke bombs as if it's normal. It's also a nation that ranks 122nd out of 163 in the Global Peace Index. The next-worst G7 country, France, comes in at 55th. The US is one of only four nations that allow unlicensed people of a minimum age to acquire a gun. The other three are Switzerland — which does require a license for anything but single-shot and sports arms — Lebanon and Yemen. Why is the US so out of sync with the global gun consensus? Frank told Sarah Green Carmichael that there are two reasons: gun culture and politics. The US has a gun-centric movement, powered by the NRA, that views guns both as sacred objects and toys — take Senator Ted Cruz cooking bacon on the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, for example. It's a movement so powerful that the US is the only nation in the world that has more civilian-owned guns than it has actual people. War-torn Yemen, another nation in which you can just walk into a shop and buy a weapon, has the second-highest gun-to-human ratio, with roughly 1 gun for every 2 people. In terms of actual numbers, India has the second-largest number of civilian-owned firearms, but even with a population of 1.4 billion, the actual stash is just a fifth the size of the US's. So what can be done? From the global perspective, we've already got solutions that work. Why not try one of them? Jonathan Bernstein puts the blame on Republicans, who, rather than acting like a normal political party that sees problems and comes up with solutions, instead offer up those cliched thoughts and prayers and act outraged that Democrats are "politicizing" tragedies, i.e. acting like a normal political party. Ramesh Ponnuru cites three big barriers to effective action. First, the mainstream gun-control agenda would have a negligible impact if enacted. Second, people's support for it therefore is soft. Third, more ambitious gun-control proposals would be effective, but they have no support and would be hard to enforce — partly because of the whole more-guns-than-humans problem. The US could start by better enforcing the few rules it does have. Parmy Olson detailed how easy it is to buy guns over Facebook Marketplace, potentially bypassing background checks. President Joe Biden was right when he characterized the problem as uniquely American. With babies going hungry and children shot in their classrooms, the US is becoming a nation that cares more about unborn fetuses than the living, breathing innocents out in the American air. Both problems could be solved by lawmakers. There's a lot to be ashamed about in my home country, the UK. Our prime minister has just been found to have broken a pandemic-era law that he himself put in place. But in the last decade, we've only had one mass shooting because, decades ago, we saw something that wasn't right and acted on it. When will the US do the same? After a ban of more than two decades, the US government is finally funding studies on how to prevent gun deaths. Julianna Goldman looks forward to the findings. Some advice from Tim O'Brien for the Uvalde families: Follow the example of the Sandy Hook families and sue the firearms companies. As the shock subsides, shame and anger need to give way to purposeful outrage, says Bloomberg's editorial board. Allison Schrager on how sensible immigration policy would help combat both inflation and labor shortages. Bad news for your nuggets: David Fickling says chicken prices are soaring. Notes: To contact the author of this newsletter, email Lara Williams at lwilliams218@bloomberg.net. This is the Theme of the Week edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a digest of our top commentary published every Sunday. | 
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