"I'm sure there are many items on a President's desk at the start of a term in office, but we can pretty sure gun control isn't far behind the economy and hairspray. Of course, it wouldn't be this way had the untold horror of constant mass shootings was not so uniquely American. But it is, and if there was ever a time to focus on the obsession with firearms, it was now. Unfortunately, the crazy, orange man will not have read any documents, merely thinking of new ways to tell the world how God had saved him from the sniper's bullet.

Speak to any American and, whether they are for or against the widespread public ownership of guns, they will confirm that firearms mean much more than cold metal and cordite in the USA. For whatever reason, the gun has come to represent the citizen's detachment from the state. It has become an icon of freedom.

And in the unlikely event POTUS wishes to make even a dent in this national psychology, he faces an uphill struggle. He's going to need every trick in the book and in America, that usually starts with advertising."