Seven people have been arrested and firearms and ammunition recovered as police investigate a gang feud which sparked a series of terrifying shooting incidents in Auckland this week.Ten charges had been laid against seven people…

Opinion: Another day, another mass shooting in the United States. 

This time at least 19 young children and two adults were murdered on the last day of school before summer break.

As much as it pains me to say this: it will happen again.

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It's become almost commonplace in the country where I was born. 

On the 144th day of the year, it was the 212nd mass shooting – defined as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people.  Let that sink in for a second.

There have been more mass shootings in the US than days in the year. Is this a problem in Australia or any other country in the world?

We've been here before, hoping this will be the tragedy that will finally prompt change. 

As much as it pains me to say this: it won't. 

Let's have a look at a few of the responses from people who could do something to prevent the next school shooting.

US President Biden is hoping to "turn this pain into action".

"Parents who will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them.

"Parents who will never be the same. To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away," Biden said in his address just hours after the tragedy.  

"Where in God's name is our backbone?" he asked.

There was similar sentiment from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He too made an emotional call to action:

"The 14 kids dead in an elementary school in Texas right now. What are we doing? What are we doing?" he asked the US Senate.

"Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons we have another Sandy Hook on our hands."

This from March 4 Our Lives an organization born out of the tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where 17 people were killed in 2018:

"Our hearts are utterly and completely broken. You can't stop a bullet with thoughts and prayers. To honor those lost and save countless lives, we need action. We're dying while we wait for it."

https://twitter.com/AMarch4OurLives/status/1529217425425711104

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, had a different take.

"Inevitably when there's a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicise it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens," Cruz said.

"That doesn't work. It's not effective. It doesn't prevent crime."

Remember, this man represents the families whose children were gunned down, killed why they tried to get an education.

This comment comes hours after the tragedy, and before mothers and fathers could bury their young sons and daughters.

This is where the game of politics gets in the way of saving lives.

Let's take a look at this new bipartisan bill. H.R.8 basically plugs all of the holes in the background checks system. It's a very common-sense step to prevent gun violence.

It requires that any sale or transfer of firearms be subject to a background check.  Seems like something most reasonable people can support?

The Democratic-controlled House passed it in 2019, but it has never cleared the Senate. Republicans, some of whom are financially backed by the NRA, have prevented it from passing.

So, here we are again.

The next few days will play out in a familiar way. Remember, we've been here plenty of times before.

Democrats will go to their political playbook demanding change, whether it's increased background checks or restrictions on automatic weapons.

Republicans will say it's too soon to talk about these issues in the wake of such a tragic event, all while offering "thoughts and prayers".

Eventually they'll argue for more guns, after all, the old saying goes: "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun".

They'll push for teachers to be strapped up and for armed guards to patrol schools. The two sides will be so far away from each other, nothing will get done.  

Later, we will hear stories of heroism about the teachers who lost their lives trying to protect their students.

We will be told about the young souls lost. Their cheeky smiles, their love of sport and Paw Patrol, how they'll be missed by their sisters and brothers. 

We will see photos of their young faces, full of promise, hope, a world at their feet.

The boy who wanted to be a police officer. The girl who talked to her dog and dreamt of becoming a veterinarian.

Parents will grieve their sons and daughters in television interviews beamed all over the world. 

Their pain will be felt all the way here in Australia. But, nothing will change with America's gun laws.

It's not a matter of if, but when something like this will happen again.

On May 31, 1942, Japanese midget submarines carried out a surprise attack during World War II that became known as 'The Battle for Sydney'.

The number of reptile species at risk of extinction around the world are higher than previously thought with Australian animals among the most at risk, according to a new machine-based learning tool.

The findings, published in PLOS Biology yesterday, come less than a month after it was found one in five reptile species are at risk of extinction.

Currently there are 157 Australian species listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. However the new research found this number almost doubles to 283 when unassessed species are taken into account.

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The study authors explained many animal species were not evaluated as "the process for categorising species is laborious and subject to bias (and depends) heavily on manual curation by human experts".

SO, the machine learning tool assessed 4,369 reptile species that were previously unable to be prioritised for conservation, and assigned IUCN extinction risk categories to the 40 per cent of the world's reptiles that lacked published assessments or are classified as "DD" ("Data Deficient") at the time of the study.

The researchers then validated the model's accuracy by comparing it to the Red List risk categorisations.

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They found reptile-rich regions like Australia, Madagascar and the Amazon basin had the highest proportion of at-risk animals.

"The additional reptile species identified as threatened by our models are not distributed randomly across the globe or the reptilian evolutionary tree," study co-author Shai Meiri said.

"Our added information highlights that there are more reptile species in peril – especially in Australia, Madagascar, and the Amazon basin – all of which have a high diversity of reptiles and should be targeted for extra conservation effort."

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She added rich species groups like geckos and elapid snakes – which includes brown snakes, cobras and mambas – are probably more threatened than the Global Reptile Assessment currently highlights.

The tool also found an increase in the proportion of threatened Crocodylia, the order that comprises crocodiles.

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