Insanity. This is an actual Christmas card from a US politician.

America has one of the most powerful military forces in the world. In the past decade, the creeping militarisation of American police forces has seen huge investment in the arming of local police forces. On top of state and county police, there is the National Guard, the FBI, the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Secret Service.

There are layers and layers of official American law enforcement bodies which can be called on to protect the citizenry. Americans do not need more guns. They do not need to better arm themselves, preparing to shoot whomever appears to be a risk.

This is not how you make yourself safer.

In a speech addressing the terrorist threat, President Obama said that in the United States “terrorists turned to types of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society” once it became too difficult to execute more grandiose attacks.

He said no matter what resources were employed, law enforcement agencies would never be able to catch every mass shooter before they staged an attack.

It is for this reason that the United States must enact stricter gun control laws, making it “harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones used in San Bernardino”, he said.

“What we can do and must do is make it harder for them to kill,” President Obama said.

And as President Obama points out, a good way to do that is to remove their access to guns.

Giving everyone a gun would make sense if no one ever intended to use one. But as we know from the American experience, that’s simply not what happens.

Maybe it’s time to try a different approach, Michele Fiore. Because making sure Americans are armed to the teeth isn’t working.