How to Stop School shootings

Shame on us all for risking the wellbeing of our school aged children, essentially our society has done nothing to protect them. We can’t hide behind our good intentions or political platitudes -- as the old saying goes, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Should we arm all of the school teachers or disarm our citizens? Neither extreme would work.

The despicable politicizing of mass shootings by both liberals and conservatives is beyond counterproductive, it is repugnant. Seemingly, Gun control is the quintessential Lightning-Rod topic of our age, but sadly while we were championing our positions on gun control we all have perpetually failed to protect our children.

We need more compassion and less condemnation from each other when we are on opposite sides of gun control debates. Is it plausible to think we can alleviate our suffering? Not if we keep fighting each other (left vs right, conservative vs liberal) instead of addressing the actual problem.

We all need to ask: What if gun laws aren’t enough to stem the horrific monstrosity of slaughtering school children? Our children deserve to live secure lives without the fear of being killed in class. While we all agree the safety of our youth is vital, sadly because we are so polarized we refuse to agree on how to keep our children safe.

The missing piece from our not so nuanced National conversation is the fact that slaughtering anyone is a matter of the heart, not of the courthouse. Would you kill children if it were legalized -- of course not, therefore you know in your heart of hearts killing children is not simply a matter of legality.

On a mission trip in the 1990’s my wife and I noticed an absence of garbage cans on the city streets of London. When I asked why there were no garbage cans I was told that the IRA placed bombs in the cans. Maybe you remember the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013, when the bombers used a crockpot or a pressure cooker to construct/conceal their bomb.

Can you imagine a world without a pocket knife of your choice? Today in London it’s illegal to carry a pocket knife over 3 inches long, all locking blades are all illegal, and absolutely no fixed blades are allowed because determined evil people have slashed their way through crowded spaces aiming to kill as many Westerners as possible.

People with the intent to destroy large numbers of others will poison, blow up, bludgeon, stab, derail trains, they will do whatever it takes to wreak havoc. Regulating sane people will not stop insane people from attacking innocent bystanders -- any monster can weaponize a minivan and mow down pedestrians, anywhere anytime.

We have hundreds of mass-shootings every year and there are people who should never own a gun, that is a fact. It’s also factual that sane, upstanding, law-abiding citizens are not responsible for the violent acts of sociopaths.

Sane people do not go around killing innocent people, only sociopathic monsters do. School shootings, church shootings, shootings in shopping malls, theaters, shootings anywhere are driven by deranged people and I’ll add, demonic forces too. Consider I JN 5:19, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

Heaven help us on the day we are persuaded politicians have penned laws that will penetrate the hearts of people. Even ardent atheists will acknowledge, it’s nearly impossible to legislate morality. Laws don’t protect people any more than locking your front door does to keep out burglars.

Once we realize that the killing of other people is a spiritual problem and a mental health issue and not a legal problem, maybe then we can focus on possible solutions to stem the bloodshed. Capitol Hill will never provide the solution for mass murders -- a solution to our national crisis will only be a result of purposefully keeping our children secure.

Our too frequent inexcusable school shootings are a spiritual matter -- the sooner society sees school shootings as spiritual issues the sooner safety solutions may surface. As long as we treat slaughtering children merely as a crime issue that laws could regulate instead of seeing the taking of life as a spiritual problem and start treating life as sacred, we will keep losing precious lives to evil people.

It’s tough to legislate morality but since it’s easier to argue about unenforceable laws than it is to change the hearts of people, we keep on wasting time arguing. We have a killing problem on this planet and in our country not a method problem; take away all the guns and evil people will resort to some other method, as the old saying goes, “If you outlaw guns, then only the outlaws will have guns.” Guns are a smokescreen, they aren’t the problem -- we the people are.

My opinion is simple: Restricting rational people will never deter deranged people from harming us. Crazed, evil, malicious people will stop at nothing from harming others once they have decided to. Lawless, demonic, sociopaths will not be swayed by any laws. We need to stop pointing fingers, quit blaming each other, and acknowledge a painful reality: When our children are in danger, no one in society is safe.

Originally published in the Times News 4/28/23 

 

Schools shootings are really a symptom of

Headaches are a symptom of high blood pressure -- don’t ask me how I know. Taking an aspirin might help the headache, but it won’t address the hypertension that is killing you. School shootings are getting a lot of focus, but I submit these shootings are a symptom of an even darker problem.

Some people have rightly pointed out that “studies” don’t tie school shootings to the violent video games that have consumed our Nation’s young people. Common sense tells me otherwise. Still, even so, the video games and actions movies that glorify killing are only a symptom, they’re not the actual disease.

There are two lightning rod issues that have our nation divided: Abortion and gun control. Second Amendment advocates are unwilling to relinquish assault weapons. Why not? Because if you can ban one type of firearm, the rest will soon be taken away. It’s the same thinking with partial-birth abortions. I don’t know anyone in their right mind that thinks terminating a baby once it enters the birth canal is OKAY. Yet, if that “procedure” is outlawed, then it’s only a matter of time until all abortions are eliminated.

When I was growing up, “gun control” was resting the barrel of your rifle across a branch or on a log to steady your aim. And, all life was sacred; pregnant women “glowed” and all babies were considered precious.

In case you are wondering where I stand, I’m pro-life, and while I grew up with guns and think we should all have the right to bear arms, I can’t really see the need for civilians to have military assault weapons. But again, people on both sides of the divide are unwilling to budge, because they think these are “all or nothing” issues and they fear losing their stance.

My favorite rifle is a .30-30, and I’d like to one day own a “Judge” handgun, it’s a .45 that also holds 410 shotgun shells. The way I grew up, guns were for sport, hunting, and home-protection. Guns were never for resolving petty conflicts. We were taught from a young age to have respect for life indirectly and gun safety overtly.

Guns and abortions aren’t even half of the equation. People don’t even respect their own health these days. Cigarettes probably kill more people than anything else. Forks kill more people than guns do -- we are an obese nation that loves fatty and high-sugar-content foods. Our lifestyles are killing us.

Life isn’t valued, that is the disease! Many of these violent tragedies we are so worried about are simply the symptoms of a culture that disrespects life. This problem didn’t spring up overnight and it won’t be resolved in a day. There are no easy ways to address this malignancy that is devouring us.

Similar to suicide, mass shootings are a last resort to fixing a problem. Kids don’t kill their classmates because they feel like they other tools to address their problems, they see it as the only way. Why? We have a generation of people who don’t, A: know how to resolve their conflicts/problems, and B: They have devalued life.

Whenever we politicize any issue (think gun control and abortions) society loses its bearings. Please stop thinking and believing politicians have the ability to solve our social woes or that they can fix our moral dilemmas. Start teaching the toddlers in your life to work out their own problems and teach them about the sanctity of all human life, and then maybe in a generation we’ll see less death and violence. If not, then pray, Lord Come Quickly.