The protests outside the National Rifle Association annual conference, which opened in Houston three days after the Uvalda school shooting, highlighted the deep divide in the country on the question of gun control. The protestors were vehemently voicing their desire to be free from the threat of gun violence, while those attending the event were stubbornly clinging to the Second Amendment as support for their desire to own guns.

How can gun enthusiasts turn a blind eye to the fact that tens of thousands of innocent lives could be saved should a law be enacted for the control of guns?

Some gun enthusiasts even assert that the shooter in Uvalde "could have walked in there with a baseball bat and possibly killed as many kids".

Some even believed in conspiracy theories, and a lifetime NRA benefactor from St. Louis was quoted as saying, "I'm not sure that there are not forces someplace that somehow find troubled people and nurture and develop them and push them for their own agendas."

Such far-fetched notions justifying gun ownership mean the differences will hardly be reconciled any time soon.

The politicized differences between the two sides have made rational argument impossible.

Such an unbridgeable divide shows it is impossible for public opinion to help solve the myriad problems in the US.

The interests of the majority of Americans are no longer important. What matters is money and ideological loyalty.

The arms industry and those politicians who benefit from the industry have become such a formidable force in the US that their lobby in the Congress would be able to foil any motions to enact a law for stricter gun control measures.

They have managed to convince a large proportion of the American public that the unrestrained propensity for violence is their constitutional and God-given right.

Despite the protests by an increasing number of Americans demanding stricter measures for gun control, despite the fact that background checks and other measures endorsed by GOP politicians would never be able to prevent guns from ending up in the hands of those willing to employ them for some deadly purpose, some Republicans and gun enthusiasts still argue that the problem is not one of gun control but a problem of controlling personal demons.

It has become obvious that the US Congress, which is supposed to represent the interests of the majority of Americans, has been kidnapped by interest groups and its common sense is held hostage by the political divide. It thus cannot function as it should for the well-being of the American people.