We promote gun culture. John or Jane Doe wants to insist on his or her right to carry and own a gun. Well, here's the unavoidable consequence: For every time a gun in the home is used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there are approximately four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides. That's a pretty well documented statistic. Here's just one source for it: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9715182 Anyone who searches can find more sources, more research studies. Unfortunately, how many research studies does it take?
This statistic is affecting me in a personal way this week. My sister teaches at a school where two children were murdered by way of a gun in the home this week.
Society, I tell you that the blood of innocents is pouring over your head and washing over your hands. You are bathed in it. The causes and consequences are clear. You have made a choice that you would rather have innocent children die than curtail your right to pack heat. It is one thing to forgive an offense that is in the past, that a person is helpless to change. It is different when the offense is deliberate and ongoing. I am not forgiving this deliberate decision to value the thrill of a deer hunt over the life of a child.
On a policy level, America is making a deliberate decision to place sport above lives. That is inexcusable.
On a policy level, America is making a deliberate decision to place sport above lives. That is inexcusable.
As for me, my prayers are with and for my sister and for the little students at her school and for the other teachers, and for the families in that community, who will never be the same. And most especially for the little children murdered this week by the blast of a gun.
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