Gun violence has hit a little close to home this week.
My daughter's alma mater, Michigan State University, was the latest victim in a string of casualties. Shannon is no longer at the campus but still has friends there. On Monday night, she was texting with someone who had barricaded themselves in one of the buildings while a person who had no business having a gun roamed through several buildings, shooting and killing at random.
Yes, the typical outrage is being bantered about. People are angry that this has happened yet again. Others, however, counter and claim that this is not a "gun" problem. It is a "societal" problem or a "mental health problem," and the guns are as blameless as their victims and are not REALLY killing people. Or the actual problem is that more people are not running around with guns to shoot back at the people with guns.
Sure sounds like a gun problem to me.
But that outrage will play out as it always does. With nothing. Simply because a portion of our politicians is beholden to a constitutional amendment ratified in December of 1791.
A time when the young United States of America had no standing armies and relied on volunteers.
A time when a nation that now boasts nearly 332 million had a population of 3,929,214.
A time when the $12 cost of purchasing a gun--about $390 in today's money--limited the financial ability of many people to purchase one. That equaled about five weeks' worth of wages in Colonial times. No one who did not absolutely need a gun spent five weeks' worth of their wages on one.
A time when muskets and flintlock pistols held one round at a time and could fire off a maximum of three to four rounds per minute, while today's semi-automatic weapons can fire as many as 45 rounds in that same time period.
The founding fathers may have envisioned a country that would grow exponentially. I think it is safe to say they did not envision anything like the carnage that modern guns can inflict.
But none of that matters. As some see it, we are all simply collateral damage in the right to own guns. And as the collateral damage adds up, they simply double down. To the point where even common sense measures are seen as a "radical left" tactic to ban all guns.
Well, I am not a member of the "radical left." I am a moderate. I reject extremism on both sides of the political spectrum. I also have guns in my home. And I have had it.
I do not want to hear your excuses. I do not want to hear only "thoughts and prayers." As someone who DOES support the right of citizens to own firearms, I want common sense.
I want red flag laws passed that allow families to work with law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or those suffering from psychological issues, whether long-term or temporary.
I want the gun show loopholes closed.
I want expanded background checks and mandatory seven-day waiting periods for ALL gun purchases.
I want all illegal firearms and all guns confiscated during the commission of crimes to be destroyed, not sold at auctions or deliberately put back into circulation so that law enforcement can "trace" them back to criminals. We all know how well Operation Fast & Furious worked out.
Lastly, I realize that the practice of private citizens owning semi-automatic weapons is a hot-button issue. Everyone has an opinion, and that is fine. To me, however, no private citizen needs to own a weapon whose only purpose is to kill as many people in as short a time as possible. I want the sale of semi-automatic weapons discontinued to the general public.
And let's talk about people with guns shooting at bad guys. Back in 2015, a suspect was fleeing a Home Depot here in Michigan after leaving the store with unpaid merchandise. The man was caught on surveillance video. Employees were aware and were following the suspect to get his plate numbers. Police had been called.
However, a woman with a licensed pistol took it upon herself to stop the thief. She began randomly firing at the suspect's vehicle in a parking lot full of people.
The thief got away but was later arrested. The woman was also charged and given 18 months probation for reckless use, handling, or discharge of a firearm.
It turns out that just because you have a permit to carry a gun doesn't mean you can whip it out and start firing it in public. It also means that even if someone is a "good" guy with a firearm, it doesn't make them responsible. Or smart for that matter.
I don't understand the logic of arming a whole bunch of people who just randomly start firing a gun in a situation where they may not even understand the circumstances or consider the "collateral damage" that may be all around them. Or don't care simply because they want to be labeled a "hero." Leave the hero work to those who are required to be specially trained and put in specified numbers of hours on a gun range to be certified to use that gun.
You don't have to agree with me. That is certainly your right.
But I am guessing there are a lot more people out there like me who are sick to death with the "thoughts and prayers" of those who want to point fingers and pour the blame on the "other side," but have no desire to do a damn thing to stop it. Because doing something about it would require them to grow a spine and stand up to the gun lobby.
It would also take away many of their talking points and their ability to put all of the blame on someone else. After all, when you do nothing but run your mouth, the risk is minimal.
Prayer, in my opinion, is certainly a good start. But James 2:14-17 reads:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
What does that mean for those who go around continually offering thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families, to those traumatized by the death and violence they have witnessed, but do nothing more? When you are not offering the solutions, not giving the most vulnerable members of society the protection they need, is that not "faith without works?"
Thoughts and prayers alone have never stopped a bullet. But for those who have only thoughts and prayers to offer, they go a long way toward keeping them flying.
