An unhappy run up to Christmas

I am referring to the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

As a mother of a six-year-old, the horror of the tragedy that overtook this small town is something unimaginable. I drop off my children every morning, watching them run into school without a care in the world, and I imagine that the parents of Sandy Hook students did exactly the same that morning. Nothing can ever prepare a parent for the tragedy that shortly followed.

When I watched Obama addressing the nation in the aftermath of the shooting I totally empathised with the feelings he expressed:

"The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the years of five and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings. Kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfil their dreams.

"So our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well. For as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain."

Those of you who have children will understand exactly what Obama meant. I often watch my children playing and I dream of the wonderful futures they will grow up to enjoy. I picture the three of them maturing to become strong upstanding individuals, surrounded by loving families. I muse about graduations and potential careers. I dream of their weddings and the birth of their children and I envisage myself as a doting grandmother spoiling my grandchildren and lavishing love and attention on them.

I also cherish my children's innocence and their belief that the world is a good place where they are loved and safe. I enjoy their chatter about the tooth fairy who recently visited my six-year-old and left her €2 and some lip balm under her pillow in return for her tooth, and the earnest discussions as to whether we should leave Santa a mince pie or cookies under the tree this year.

No parent of children under the age of 10 ever thinks about massacres and funerals. That is something that should happen only in horror films and not in the real world. We shield our offspring from such bitter realities but at the same time we wonder whether we are leaving them unprepared. Should we be teaching our kids to dive for cover when they hear a loud pop or should we leave them untainted by such evil? Should we explain why we tell them not to get into cars with strangers or should we sugar-coat such nasty realities for them?

This morning my youngest woke me up early. We cuddled on the sofa in the darkness and gazed at the Christmas tree sparkling away. I hugged him tight and wished I could wrap myself around him and keep him safe from all harm, like an invisible shield protecting him from whatever came his way. I have no doubt that like me, the parents of those 20 children who died at Sandy Hook would have gladly stepped in front of their children had they been with them. They would have done anything to keep their children safe and they must be going through hell imagining what happened during those fateful minutes when the madman struck.

My only hope is that this latest and most horrible of massacres will finally bring the US to its senses. As Obama said - "As a country we have been through this too many times. These neighbourhoods are our neighbourhoods, and these children are our children. We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

I do not believe that the citizens of the United States are any more evil or crazy than the inhabitants of other industrialised countries all over the world, so at the end of the day there is no doubt in my mind that the determining factor in all these massacres is the easy availability of guns.

The powerful gun lobby in the US insists that it is evil people who perpetrate such atrocities and not the guns, however the fact remains that even the most deranged of evildoers would find it difficult, if not impossible, to mow down 20 people in the span of a few seconds without the assistance of a semi-automatic weapon. There was in fact a stark illustration of this fact in China just a few hours after the Sandy Hook disaster. A madman entered an elementary school and attacked students with a knife. He stabbed more than 20 children, injuring them - but they survived.

The news report on CNN quoted Dr Ding Xueliang, a Harvard-educated sociologist at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. "The huge difference between this case and the US is not the suspect, nor the situation, but the simple fact he did not have an effective weapon."

It is time for Republicans and Democrats to come together to discuss what needs to be done to prevent future massacres. Tragedies such as this mass-shooting have happened in other countries, which then reacted by tightening their gun control laws. Countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom have been there and done that, and the result is a significant decrease in gun-related deaths in both countries.

I am hoping against hope that the same will happen in the United States.