The matter of guns in America once again is front page news as another school shooting took multiple lives. This is another senseless, tragic and terrible act of violent behavior. I do not know how the parents feel, because I have not personally experienced the violent death of a child. The pain must be horrible, and we would wish that such things would never happen again (though we suspect it will).
The response from politicians (and others) follows the traditional knee-jerk response that has been seen in the past: “ban guns”. But getting rid of guns of any and all kinds does not address the problem. More laws will not eliminate such violent deaths, as people will still get their hands on guns, but also are capable of using bombs, cars, poisons and whatever else their minds can dream up, to get their 15 minutes of fame by means of destroying multiple lives. There are plenty of ideas given to people on how to destroy other humans in the movies, on television and in video games.
What should we do about the problem of some 30 people killed every day where drunk drivers are involved; and we assume that in that statistic there would be multiple deaths in a single incidents. There are laws on the books, and many of them, which are designed to deal with drunk drivers. Those don’t seem to be working very well, so why not make a new law that makes it impossible to buy a car if you have ever been drunk. Or, a law which would prohibit a person from getting a driver’s license if they have ever been drunk. Surely background checks would reveal those who have been drunk. Only teetotalers can own and operate a car might be a good law to have. Think that would work?
In America, there has always been an abundance of guns owned by the citizens of this country. But the problem is not gun ownership, the NRA or that there not being enough “gun free” zones. The problem is the people themselves who shoot up schools, malls and theaters. We are rapidly becoming an uncivilized, immoral society and are reaping the results of our abandonment of moral standards. As a culture, we mock the idea of moral absolutes. We dismiss a holy God from the public square, including the school. We foolishly hide behind “individual rights” to the extent that there is little or no accountability for bad behavior. We make excuses for aberrant behaviors and pride ourselves on how tolerant and broadminded we are. And then, when we begin to experience the consequences of these pseudo-standards, we decide it is the evil NRA that is to blame, or Fox news, or gun loving rednecks, or those detestable right-wing politicians.
The moral standards which used to have a restricting effect on societal behavior has pretty much evaporated as “enlightened”, “progressive” folks do their best to remove more and more of the Judeo-Christian ethic which helped put a lid on bad human behavior. The traditional family unit (with a mom and dad operating on biblical principles given by the Creator Himself) which is the core to the stability of any civilization is openly disparaged. And then, there is nothing much said about the incredible level of gun violence glorified in Hollywood movies; the slaughtering of human beings in violent video games and the casual taking of human life night after night on television.
Unless this nation does a U turn and heads back to the moral standards given by God, there is no possibility that we will not see and experience the kind of terrible actions that have become part of American life. Without moral standards there will inevitably be immoral behavior.