Walk Right Out

Today was the day that school students all across America walked out of class to protest gun violence and the government's inability or unwillingness to do anything about it.  Not every school district in the country approved of the walkout - in some of them, students were threatened with disciplinary action if they took part in it - but the walkout went ahead as intended, and some students banned from taking part did so anyway despite threats of detention and even expulsion.

I'd like to think that this will lead to positive change as far as the easy purchase of guns in America , and in some cases it already has.  Many companies offering discounts to National Rifle Association members have severed ties with the NRA, including Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, which was punished with a bill passed by the Georgia state legislature to repeal its tax exemption on jet fuel. But the airline is sticking to its . . . jets.  Dick's Sporting Goods also stopped selling assault-style riffles, its CEO saying he could no longer offer them in his stores in good conscience.

This is all good and fine, but no one in Washington is getting the message, and even the White House, which initially proposed background checks for prospective gun buyers and  an increase in the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, seems to have backed off.  But then, this is nothing new in the U.S.  Just when you think things are finally moving forward in this country, it suddenly resumes backsliding into inertia.