On high school shootings in United States

The death rate by shooting of young people under 15 years old is 12 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized nations. Could this be something to do with the fact that there are 250 million guns in the country?

Ask this question of relatives of the victims of violence in high schools, and measure the huge gap between their viewpoint and that of their president on what is still a taboo in Republican circles -- controlling the trade in firearms.

In the name of the sacrosanct Second Amendment -- which guarantees the right to bear arms -- Dubya has made the arguments of the gun lobby his own. But in a country which counts more gun shops than educational establishments the American people have other ideas.

In the face of such a popular consensus how is it possible to explain that, two years after the Columbine High tragedy, legislators still refuse to set in law the obligation to register the purchase of a handgun? Why have they failed to force the arms industry to add safety mechanisms to guns?

The answer is simple: in English, "Follow the money."

Follow the money of the gun lobby, which has made over 13 million dollars in campaign donations since 1990, 90 percent of them to the party of the President. But the patience of Americans with this powerful interest group is wearing thin, and Dubya will need more than charm to convince them of his integrity and leadership on this issue."

-- Le Matin, Lausanne, Switzerland