AS news came through about America’s latest mass shooting a scary thought came to the mind – I’m not surprised it has happened.

At least 59 dead, more than 500 wounded in Vegas and yet I’m sure I’m not the only one that wasn’t shocked.

How can that be though? How is it possible that in the 21st century, events like this are not rare in the States?

The reality is mass shootings – defined as an event where four or more people are killed – are an everyday event in the US.

Between 2001 and 2013, more than 400,000 people died as a result of gun violence.

The problem is another mass shooting is always not far away because the gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, has a president in their pocket and there is no will for anything to change.

It is scary how so many Americans not only see owning a gun as normal – they see it as their right. To get to the stage it is now, a scale of 90 guns per 100 people, is due simply to brainwashing.

It puts things in perspective how lucky we are to live in a country which thinks sensibly about guns.

We have seen some senseless terrorism incidents this year here, just think how much worse it would have been if these murderers had, for example, used assault weapons.

The Dunblane massacre in 1996, which saw 16 children and a teacher needlessly killed, resulted in a ban on the private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain, giving us some of the toughest anti-gun legislation in the world.

But even here we should never become complacent – the 15 to 16 per rise in gun crime nationally, according to last year’s official police figures, is evidence of that.

Sadly, though, nothing is going to change anytime soon in America.

Although President Trump once supported a ban on assault weapons, there is no way he will push for tighter gun laws while he cynically appeals to his gun-loving base.

Added to this is a significant section of the America people who see mass shootings as a sad routine and quickly go back to their everyday lives with guns.

I fear if the horror of mass shootings like Vegas can’t change their mind about the second amendment then nothing will.