I hug those parents who experienced their worst nightmare today when natural events of the passage of time were turned upside down by a madman.

Unashamed tears unsuccessfully washed away what-if images of my two youngest granddaughters, safely lodged in California, caught up in the carnage that met first responders.

And the mother who died before she had to who never has to see what her son did with the guns she bought, I puzzle over, sadly.

And from the gun lobbyist drowning out Piers Morgan's other guests with his NRA rant I wouldn't have been surprised had he with mouth-foaming stridency screamed: If those kids had been packing iron, they'd still be alive.