Those wonderful young people in Florida have really achieved something: they have finally flushed out the gunhumpers for who they are and exposed them for all to see.

Faced with these articulate, engaging and engaged (and white, well-to-do…) youngsters, the callous nutters like tRump and the NRA have realized that their customary stance of mealy-mouthed platitudes is losing big-time in the court of public opinion. So they have been forced to take a stance.

And boy does it look bad: the day after tRump tried (and failed) to look sympathetic and presidential (juvenile crib sheet in hand), we get to hear his pathetic, ignorant solution: give teachers guns!

And Wayne LaPierre, the head fruit bat at the NRA, after first contemplating hiding away, has also felt obliged to give his unhinged, ranted solution, which again amounts to: more guns.

So well done young Parkland High School students in Florida: if nothing else you have exposed the heartless, gun-toting psychos in all their gory glory.

Now they have more and they have more, deadlier ones. There is a qualitative and quantitative difference compared to the 60s. It’s not not just the guns and it’s not just the gun owners. It’s also culture and healthcare.

Swiss gun owners have to undergo a mandatory psych exam (+1000 questions and an IQ-test followed by a grief evaluation of a psychologist) to get a military grade weapon and even then you can’t just go out and buy bullets.

School massacres are not a western phenomenon at all, it’s strictly an Umerkin phenomenon. It happens in no other developed country.

The US has 5 gun killings per annum per 100,000 of population. In the UK, rounded to 1 decimal place, the equivalent figure is…zero. Even in France in the year of the horrific Bataclan massacre, the figure “only” reached just over 1 gun killing per 100,000 of population.

The USA has an estimated 101 privately owned guns per 100 of population. The UK? Six. Can you spot a correlation? Supporters of even modest restrictions on firearms are regularly instructed that their ardent advocacy turns off Umerkins* in rural areas and small towns. Those in favor of reforming our firearms laws are scolded as horrific elitists who disrespect a valued way of life.

And as the mass killings continue, we are urged to be patient and to spend our time listening earnestly to the views of those who see even a smidgen of action to limit access to guns as the first step toward confiscation. Our task is not to fight for laws to protect innocents, but to demonstrate that we really, honestly, truly, cross-our-hearts, positively love gun owners and wouldn’t for an instant think anything ill of them.

What is odd is that those with extreme pro-gun views — those pushing for new laws to allow people to carry just anytime, anywhere — are never called upon to model similar empathy toward all the children killed, the mourning parents left behind, people in urban neighborhoods suffering from violence, or the majority of Umerkins who don’t own guns. Nor would they ever; they are seemingly incapable of empathy.

This horrible situation can easily be solved with stricter gun laws. It’s not like some force majeure where we are helpless. We have all tools necessary to make our schools and our country a much safer place.

But since Umerkins would rather sacrifice numerous innocent children’s lives at the altar of the holy gun than admit to themselves that military weapons should not be available on every corner to everyone, I really see no reason to engage in such a pointless endeavor.

If that’s what they would rather choose – more guns and more violence – then so be it, and don’t expect the rest of the world to give a shit. I truly am sad hearing that young people in this country are murdered in mass shootings, but if engaged citizens will not do anything to prevent such atrocities from happening, well then they deserve it.

The worst thing that can happen to these kids is if they believe that their inability to bring about immediate results is a sign of the hopelessness for their cause. They are taking on an ideology that’s been in the making for generations and is supported not only by an incredibly well-funded, broad and deep propaganda machinery, but also by a constitutional amendment.

They have started a fight that they need to continue calmly and meticulously possibly for a decade or more. NOTHING is going to change in Umerka in the short term. What is critical is to have inspired and supported the young people to bring about meaningful change – and that’s what these kids are doing. They need to look at this much like the leaders of the civil rights movement did at their task in the 50s and 60s. This is a generational fight.

When I heard Emma Gonzales speak I was truly inspired. The passion, the integrity and the authenticity she exuded was amazing! None of our tired and stale “leaders” in D.C. can speak like that. They can’t speak without looking down at every scripted word.

When I watch these brave kids in action I feel hope for the first time in a very long time…since my days as a young person in the late 60s and early 70s. I hope these kids run for office as soon as they legally can. God knows we need new and fresh leadership. They can see the handwriting on the wall. They want to live and thrive, and our current trajectory leads towards total corporate control, endless wars, increasing disparity in wealth, increasing racial divisions, and environmental catastrophe.

These kids are dreaming a different world and Emma Gonzales and her Marjory Stoneman Douglas classmates, are showing us that beautiful new face! And I stand with them.

Seeing them in action makes me feel like maybe we as a nation are starting the long climb out of this hell of ignorance, denial and complacency we have been living through.

Maybe with these kids growing up and taking the helm, we are not quite headed into the dark age of dumb-fuckery we have feared.

Maybe.

(*my new term for americans)