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Desk, chair, whiteboard, backpack. The basic trappings of school life very hardly at all

from country to country around the world. But in only one country, is it normal to ask whether

all these familiar items of childhood could be made bulletproof. In only one country,

a school's beginning to be designed with curved walls to disrupt the line of sight of an

attacker. In only one country, does the first day of school routinely involve children

learning where to hide while knowing that hiding may not be enough. 19 children and two teachers

were shot dead in an elementary school this week. This only happens in America. The reason why

is simple, it's because Americans have more guns. I'm John Prado and this is checks and balance

from the economist. Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it

in depth. Today, why can't America stop mass gun violence? The horror at Yvalde in Texas

shows American exceptionalism at its worst. But part of the tragedy is that the event itself

is not exceptional. In the 10 years since another gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary

School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 26, there have been more than 900 other shootings in

schools across the country. And this latest atrocity comes just a week after 10 people were murdered

in the supermarket in Buffalo for the color of their skin. What will it take for America to solve

its gun problem? Why does America continue to accept this terrible cost?

With me to discuss this, Idris Calune, Charlotte Howard,

Charlotte Idris last week's podcast, we were discussing briefly the shooting in Buffalo and

...