Every day in the US, a school goes into lockdown. On rare occasions, the safety drill is triggered by a shooting incident on campus; usually, it’s a false alarm or a precautionary response to a nearby crime or domestic dispute. I can’t remember when lockdowns, originally a technique for defusing prison riots, became the norm in our schools. It’s just part of life now. There’s a reason for it, of course. If the Sandy Hook tragedy showed anything, it’s that safety protocols can save lives. The spectre of mass school shootings was not something Americans had to contend with 50 years ago: of the deadliest shootings in US history – those claiming 12 or more lives – half occurred in the 50 years between 1949 and 1999; the other half have occurred in the past six years. All the same, I can’t help wondering what effect all these panic drills are having on our children, who are taught to cower silently in cupboards and run in zig-zag patterns to make it harder for gun-wielding maniacs to get a bead on them. We “routinely terrify and traumatise them in order to spare our kids terror and trauma” – and we “tell them this is what freedom looks like”. (Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.com).

Epicureanism stands for happiness and getting on with one another. The gun lobby seems intent on standing for suspicion, terror, trauma and a society that lives in fear, parading the streets, the bars and the schools, ready at a moment’s notice to “stand its ground”. What a wretched way to live! Surely, we can do better than to live at the behest of these cruel sociopaths? Pray tell me, someone, how do you justify this inhumane and unhappy society the NRA is creating, pitifully, among our vulnerable young? Is this what you call civilization? Barbarism was actually safer – it involved swords and clubs, not spurts of gunfire.