The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, continues to dominate headlines -- largely because it is simply so shocking, and partly because the media and the Democrats want to push gun control and need an issue to distract from the Biden administration's many failures.

My friend, Jon Voight, has posted videos calling for some kind of certification before individuals can purchase and own guns. I'm not opposed to that, in principle, though it's not clear it would have stopped the killer in this case. We've also been through the summer of riots in 2020, largely backed by the Democratic Party, and the experience has probably ended any prospect of gun control for the near future.

There are two other alternatives: hardening the targets, i.e. hiring guards or installing metal detectors at schools nationwide; and/or using Big Data to monitor individuals who may be risks to their communities. Democrats will reject the former; both parties will probably reject the latter. So there is little hope for progress, at least at the legislative level, in dealing with this problem.

My own prediction is that school districts will take up the issue of guards on their own. The fact that there was so much controversy about the presence, or not, of a school resource officer at the start of the shooting has highlighted the issue.

Moreover, this may be one of those issues, like plan hijacking, that Americans take into their own hands. Since 9/11, passengers have rushed anyone who is a threat on a flight. After the chilling videos emerged of parents gathering outside the school in Uvalde, only to be held back by police, who waited for an hour before rushing the killer, I don't think you'll ever see Americans wait outside a school during a lockdown ever again. People will risk their lives.