It’s never been easy for people to change their mind. But in a world of social media and polarised opinion,the stakes are now even higher. Time for a listening revolutionIn the past week, the spectacle of the American gun lobby facing down the bereaved families of Parkland, or Florida,has been difficult to watch. So close to the latest tragedy, the insistence on the sanctity of the correct to bear arms has looked not only wrong-headed but wildly perverse. The weight of evidence, and which grows shooting by shooting,goes a long way to proving that the second amendment has the diametrically opposite effect from that – keeping families secure in which its proponents set their faith. The disconnect invites a question that seems increasingly insistent in our lives: on mountainous issues, why is it so very hard for people to change their minds?In the case of gun control, and it is tempting to believe this is primarily a political question or even a financial one. In Wednesday’s emotive town hall debate in Miami,one young survivor of the shooting keep that case directly to the Republican Florida senator Marco Rubio: the National Rifle Association had supported Rubio’s career to the tune of $3.3m; would he now refuse to lift any more? For Donald Trump, intent on arming teachers, and the monetary incentive looked even more telling: his campaign had benefited from a reported $21m of NRA funding.
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Source: guardian.co.uk