For the 28th time this year a student at an American high school opened fire with a military-grade weapon, killing four of his classmates and wounding six.

He was only 15 years old.

From 2018 until today we have had 86 shootings in schools in this country.

This is a national tragedy. And shame. America has the distinction of being first among the developed countries with this problem. Killing its children in their schools.

Honestly, how many of our children must die before America takes the necessary steps to stop them? And do not think that these shootings cannot be stopped.

It is not a coincidence that America is at the forefront of this issue. Nor, of course, is it a coincidence that the number of massacres in European schools ranges from very few to none at all.

That this is a case has to do with the culture of violence, with the mentality that has developed regarding the possession of weapons. It has to do with the history of the country and the continuation of the glorification of the possession of weapons.

And to explain: It’s one thing to be a hunter, but it is a completely different matter to sell weapons designed for military use, often without any controls, to the public at large.

There are hunters in Europe as well. So why aren’t there massacres in their schools and cities?

And it’s not a matter of shutting down arms companies. Let them continue to manufacture, but let them distinguish what they sell to hunters and what they sell to the Armed Forces.

The second amendment to the Constitution, which many cite, states: “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.”

Does this have any rational relationship to the conditions that have led to the massacres we see in the country’s schools? Certainly not.

According to various polls, millions of American high school students go to school every day fearing for their lives. Many parents tremble at the thought that their children may be the target of a paranoid shooter.

America deserves better than that. The children of America deserve better than that.

It is time for politicians to do the right thing: Resist the pressure of arms companies and the gun lobby. Stop accepting money from them for your political campaigns.

Let’s remove assault weapons from the market and clear the country of the millions of illegal weapons in circulation. We need to save the honor of the country.

But, above all, we need to save the children of the country.