Everyone else looks at the USA and shakes their heads with incredulity.

Nothing will ever change in the USA with regards to the 33,000+ gun deaths per year. This is because the USA is uniquely dysfunctional, not just politically but also socially.

Perhaps in another five hundred years, should our species manage to avoid exterminating itself along with every other major life form on this planet, the USA might slowly creep towards more normative values exhibited by the rest of the OECD. But I personally wouldn’t count on it. There are too many reinforcing factors.

Politically, gun-rights folks are a great source of votes for the Republican Party. No one wants to give up easy votes.

Entertainment-wise, Hollywood spews out endless TV series and movies that use guns as an easy way to gloss over plot holes, empty characters, and dull dialogue.

Socially, guns enable every obese uneducated male to imagine he’s Squint Eastward so long as he can jam his pudgy finger through a trigger-guard.

Legally, the poorly-worded 2nd Amendment will provide lawyers with nice fees for centuries to come.

And so the slaughter will continue forever. Which is why I left, after 27 years, to live in a civilized society instead.