What a surprise, Trump backs down on more gun controls

The least surprising announcement from Donald Trump this week was that he is backtracking on his initial reaction to the El Paso and Dayton Ohio shootings when he said expanded background checks were needed. Now, suddenly, after a nice little chat on the phone with the boss of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, Trump feels there are already enough background checks and so that's fine - until the next shootings of course, then no doubt it will be raised again, and rejected. Trump is trying to distinguish between healthy, rugged Second-Amendment-loving citizens and those who enter a gunshop with a mental problem but presumably who show no sign of being off their trolley, and buying an assault rifle in a bad mood. Or to put it more bluntly they enter a gunshop to buy an assault rifle in order to go off and kill a lot of people because they were bullied at school, or lost their job, or didn't like their grandmother anymore or lost their dog or just generally felt pissed off with life. The president has the solution for these people. He wants a whole lot more mental institutions to house them. Basically Trump echoed the same language used by the National Rifle Association which goes along these lines: the Second Amendment which allows everyone over a certain age to "keep and bear arms" is so important to the well-being of the United States of America that any further controls or limits would be a slippery slope towards undermining that wonderful constitutional right. Trump says there are plenty of background checks and no longer feels it's necessary to add to them. Well done Mr LaPierre, you earned your money in that phone call. It's what happens every time there is another mass shooting. Outrage everywhere, promises to do more to stop them reoccurring, and then after a few weeks have gone by, all the good intentions slip away to dust. Provided the Second Amendment remains sacrosanct, which it will while the NRA is alive and well, then there really is no solution to the gun problem in the US. There will be more shootings, more deaths, more shock and horror, but nothing will change. That's a very sad conclusion. I think I'm right in saying that there is nowhere else on this planet where this kind of regular shooting massacre takes place. Not including wars of course or the mass drug killings in Mexico. I'm talking of ordinary citizens who get driven by something in their heads to take the semi-automatic assault rifle from its cupboard and go off on a killing spree. Three or four or five times a year. Every year. But Trump's only solution is to open up more mental institutions. Terrific.