In the wake of another mass shooting in the United States, an all too familiar chorus rings out across the world.
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The common response is "our thoughts and prayers are with you."
However, it is very apparent that these are not enough. It is now time for a more proactive approach.
But opinions are still mixed in the US.
On one side of the argument are the people who, sensibly, favour stricter control over guns and on the other side are, well, people who really like their guns.
In 2022, it is more dangerous in America to be a school student than it is to be a police officer.
According the Gun Violence Archive there have been 27 school shootings this year already - it is only May.
At the time of writing over 17,000 people have died in the US to gun violence this year, and 650 of those are children.
Surely it is time for the lawmakers to consider changing something or, at the very least, make it more difficult for people to own guns.
The most recent of these mass shootings was carried out by an 18-year-old, Salvador Ramos, with assault rifles that he purchased for himself on his 18th birthday.
It is unknown what his reasons were for targeting the school.
He had been a student there however aside from that the choice of location appears at this time to be random.
The real question is, will this be the event that finally acts as a harbinger of change to what can only be described as the broken and dysfunctional gun laws of the United States?
It would perhaps be worthwhile for the United States to look toward Australia for an idea of the path forward.
Since the massacre in Port Arthur which took place in 1996, Australia has never had another event like it.
The reason for this is that our government acted immediately and with lasting effect.
There have been multiple gun amnesty periods in Australia since 1996, the most recent of which occurred last year.
This year according to multiple studies the rate of firearm deaths in the United States compared to Australia is 12 to 1, stricter gun laws simply work.
President Joe Biden has vowed to act and the rest of us the world over waits to see what, if anything, is done to prevent tragedies such as this from taken place.