Every day
when you see the news, whether it is online, TV, radio or print there is a
tragic event somewhere in the world. Most recent and close to home is the
tragic killing of 20 grade school students and 6 adults. While the motive
is unclear I would go out on a limb and say that there will be evidence that
the shooter suffered from some sort of mental disorder that was either
undiagnosed or untreated. Such occurrences are becoming more common
place and the response is similar every time. One angle is to state that
guns need to be banned because obviously if we banned guns this wouldn't happen
and then another angle is that if we as a nation were to better embrace God
such things would not happen.
I am
of the mindset that neither of these points of view is accurate. You can
take away every law abiding citizen's guns but you will still have a large
number of weapons in circulation that can be used to kill and terrorize the
populace. However our current policies do need to be
revamped because in many situations the weapons have been legally
purchased. You may ask: How do we prevent such atrocities
with policy change? I don't have a definitive answer for you. This
is where we as a society needs to get on the same page to determine what would
prevent such sales from occurring. Should guns owners be subjected to
more intrusive background checks other than those provided by the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System (NICS)? Should assault rifles and hand guns be banned?
Should a profile of gun owners be established prior to allowing gun
ownership? All of these are things that we are probably going
to see on the docket in the near future. I believe that gun
ownership should be allowed but tighter controls to prevent criminals
and the mentally imbalanced from getting their hands on them should be
established. I have no desire to take guns away from law abiding citizens
but I also do not want to worry about a psychopath gunning down my children in
their classroom, at the mall, in a movie theater or anywhere else.
The most interesting topic of cause is that because we as a country have not embraced
God as some believe we should have is why such senseless violence is happening.
This may be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. If
God exists in the loving form that many believe he/she does and holds the sway
that he/she is thought to hold then he would not be so vengeful so as to let
something like these shootings occur. God does not make these things
happen, people with a mental illness or that are just plain hateful make things
like this happen. This is where the dialog needs to be not removing every
gun from the streets or lining up at the alter to pray. Yes there needs
to be a better method of ensuring guns do not get into the hands of the
individuals that will use them in such a manner, but to do so they need to be
in the system in a way that will help to prevent them from getting their hands
on guns but will not impede their ability to lead productive lives.
Long story short is that taking away all guns will not be able to completely prevent
gun related crimes, especially with the number of guns already in circulation,
but better laws help identify those with mental illnesses and even treat them
would reduce some of these incidents. When it comes down to it my
thoughts go out to all of the families that have lost loved ones to such tragedies.
While hope is not an effective course of action, I do hope that we can
establish a reasonable dialogue that addresses the true problem and not just
the problems that the different factions want to make into the problem for
political gain.
