Children massacred. Teachers murdered trying to defend those children. What a horror we have seen in Texas this week.

And what a horror we now see unfolding — again — with our Republican politicians. “Guns are to the problem, people are,” they proclaim as they rise to the defense of the National Rifle Association.

No, guns are the problem. And they are the problem in this country. Not overseas, where mass murders are almost unheard of. Not overseas, where gun ownership is minuscule compared to the United States. Not overseas, where sane regulations help assure some level of safety for the populace.

Here? Guns have rights, declare Republicans. They are paramount. People’s right to live — children’s rights to live — do not exist. We must protect the guns above all. Doesn’t the Second Amendment make official that everyone is entitled to guns? Tamper with that and you tamper with the Constitution, and then you take away gun owner’s rights.

Never mind the children. the adults. The ordered. The suicides. The tens of thousands of deaths each year that are the fault of all the guns we have in our society.

What would it take to have Republicans turn sane? For each Republican to have one of their children massacred? Would that make any difference? Is the gun that sacred?

I don’t know. And that’s shameful. All of us ought to be assured that members of our political parties can speak with one voice in protection of our families. But that’s not the case. The Republican voice speaks only in defense of guns.

The Republican voice is sick. The Republican voice is shameless and repulsive and must not prevail.