I write regarding the mass shooting on Friday morning in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before taking his own life.
America is familiar with gun-related mass shootings, including a recent mall shooting in Oregon and The Dark Knight Rises theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in July.
This most recent incident, however, including 20 children, causes a particular hurt in the collective conscience of our nation, but it remains to be seen what could help.
One possible solution to the continual threat of mass shootings - taking guns out of the American picture altogether - is a political and logistical impossibility.
Since its founding, America has committed itself to protecting the right of citizens to own personal firearms.
The second amendment to our constitution - adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791 - enshrines this right within our nation's paramount law, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."