Lots of horrid stories, here, lots of anger. May I jump in with one foreigner's thoughts?

1) The Second Amendment of the US Constitution talks about "a well-regulated militia", not about individuals owning many deadly guns. I would personally take that as a requirement for America to have some kind of National Service, of the kind Switzerland and Israel have or had (not sure which), where every citizen is taught how to defend their government if it is attacked. But using it to allow people to own AK-47s etc seems batty.

2) The same Amendment clearly relates to self-defence of the national territory, then under threat from its former ruler, the most powerful empire then on the face of the earth; and other empires that might try to take over the fledgling republic. Not to invading other countries for spurious reasons of supposed self-defence. Like 9/11: a group of Saudis attack a commercial centre, killing themselves in the process - what does the American government do? Go and attack a different, completely unconnected nation, Iraq! Very bizarre!

3) Nuking Japanese cities saved American lives. Umm… maybe. I have read that the Japanese military and government were already making overtures for an honourable surrender. America had slaughtered Japanese civilians by other atrocities already, like the firebombing of Tokyo… if you want to know about that, hunt out an excellent DVD, The Fog of War, a film about the life of Robert S McNamara, US Secretary of Defence. If you want to know a little about people in Japan during this war, there's a cartoon based on an autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka about children starving to death.

4) In the Republic of Ireland, we are having our own experience of laws, truth, lies, mercy and mercilessness. The 8th Amendment to our own Constitution, brought into law by a referendum in 1983, gives equal rights to women and foetuses. As a result of this Amendment, a woman who deliberately aborts a pregnancy can be sentenced to 14 years in jail. However, this law is routinely ignored, and an estimated 12 women a day travel abroad for abortions. Unknown numbers of women buy the "morning-after pill" online and take it without help or consultation from a doctor - because doctors could lose their licence to practise if they gave help in such a case.

But the law has also caused the deaths of women in Ireland - women refused treatment for cancer because they are pregnant and the treatment could kill or damage the foetus; a pregnant dentist refused an abortion, the refusal of which caused her to die of sepsis due to infection; a dead woman whose body was kept "alive" by life support machinery and massive antibiotic doses because her foetus had a heartbeat; a refugee child refused permission to travel abroad for an abortion after she was raped during her journey to "safety"; a child raped by a neighbour who was effectively imprisoned so that her parents could not bring her abroad; parents who have been given a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality - the scans showing that the foetus has life-ending problems (most commonly, a brain formed outside the skull and similar) - and who must take the plane or boat abroad, have the abortion then return, the woman still ill and both deep in sorrow…

For Ireland, a soft lie has long seemed better than a hard truth. We're voting on 25 May 2018 on whether we prefer to keep the soft lies or face truth honestly. It will be an interesting result.