In Donald Trump's first public statement about the Texas mass shooting where a man with an assault rifle murdered 26 defenseless people, he said it wasn't "a guns situation." If that is true, what exactly would a "guns situation" look like?

Heinous mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States, while they remain rare everywhere else. Americans are also retreating into protectionism, xenophobia and anti-intellectualism. The country that loves to see itself as the beacon of hope and democracy in the world, that venerates its constitution as a holy document, is devolving before the world's eyes.