Mass casualty attacks are supposedly a uniquely American thing. Back when he was president, Barack Obama said as much. The term "uniquely" means that it doesn't happen anywhere else, and we all know that's complete nonsense. It might happen more often here for whatever reason, but mass shootings specifically happen throughout the world.

And a mass attack doesn't require a firearm. Many mass murders here in the US are the result of arson, for example.

Then we have knives.

Knives are handy tools that, frankly, everyone should have in their pockets everywhere they go. You never know when you'll need a knife, after all. But knives are also weapons when used as a weapon. More people have been killed with them than we have statistics to count. They can also be used to injure or kill people a lot of people.

That just happened in the UK, where they have incredibly strict gun control laws enacted after a mass shooting.

Two children have died and nine others have been injured Monday in the United Kingdom after a 17-year-old carried out a stabbing spree at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class for young children, police say.

Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said six of the children injured in the attack that happened around noon in Southport -- a town north of Liverpool -- are in critical condition, while two adults have been critically injured as well.

"It is understood that the children were attending a Taylor Swift event at a dance school when the offender, armed with a knife, walked into the premises and started to attack inside," Kennedy said. "We believe that the adults who were injured were bravely trying to protect the children who are being attacked."

The suspect, a 17-year-old from Banks, a village outside of Southport, has been taken into custody and is now facing charges of murder and attempted murder, according to police.   

This comes just a few weeks after three people were killed by a crossbow-wielding attacker.

Now, let's understand that this attack is absolutely terrible. There's no excuse for this sort of thing and while the supposed experts try to claim there's no mental health issue at play here, I have to disagree. Sane people don't attack a children's dance class. Psychology may not have named or identified the disorder at work, but there's most definitely something wrong with these people.

Yet I can't help but think about how the UK's gun control laws may have made this worse.

After all, there was absolutely no chance that any of these adults "bravely trying to protect the children" could have been armed. The attacker likely knew that and so he had absolutely no fear of being shot before he could hurt a pile of people.

"You knob! If not for their gun laws, dozens could have been killed!"

You know someone will say that, right?

It's not true, though. Think about it for a moment. We have pretty ready access to guns in this country, especially compared to the UK. Yet how many supposed mass shootings--the ones counted by the Gun Violence Archive and parroted by the media at every opportunity--have absolutely no fatalities? The presence of a gun doesn't inherently mean the attack will be more fatal.

But it can make the difference between an attempted attack and an international headline.

I can't even imagine what the families of the dead are going through, and I've been as close to being there myself as I ever want to be. My thoughts and prayers are with them.