“A Tragedy in Las Vegas”

By this time, two days after the horrible shooting in Las Vegas, with a mentally ill man using weapons modified to shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition, we are all informed of the tragedy in Las Vegas!  Weapons like this find their place on fields of battle, what we all call “killing fields.”  In this case, the “killing field” was in at a concert for those who like Country Music.  God, this is an awful thing!  It has scarred all of us again as a nation!  We have witnessed massacre after massacre over the past string of years, in universities, high schools, junior high schools, churches, department stores, movie theaters, night-clubs.  Shall I go on?  Where else is left to become a “killing field”?  This ought to be called domestic terrorism instead of ‘gun violence’.  Hell, how many people have to die before we wake up and realize we really do have a problem in this country?

Of course, other countries have their violence, too!  Terrorists in London drive Lorries into people walking on bridges, extremists stab people with knives in a train station.  Some throw battery acid on peoples’ faces.  God knows, the list of how we can kill and maim one another goes on and on.  The Islamic terrorists use machine guns from the field of battles, carried from the Middle East to France and Belgium.  But those countries who limit access to guns have less persons killed than we do in the United States of America!

It is a fact of modern life, there are many persons mentally ill or personally warped by hate speech who feel killing innocents is their right and privilege.  But those of us who choose peacefulness as the best approach to our neighbors find ourselves now at a distinct disadvantage in this society.  We no longer know of any place in modern life where we can truly be safe anymore.  At anytime, anywhere, violence can erupt and we can be killed for no apparent reason than our being in the right place at the wrong time!

It is so sad and so typical of our human response.  We all are initially shocked that such a thing could happen.  Then we mourn the loss of those who died, telling wonderful stories of their lives now cut short.  We celebrate those persons who died with contributions to our community and we set up funds for their families to remember them.  We bring flowers and many gifts of blood for donation.  We recognize the heroes who gave their lives saving others and we celebrate the many who survived this particular holocaust.

What we do not do is a root analysis of the cause of such senseless violence!  We do not ask the hard questions about why we have so many guns in our society for purposes more than hunting animals.  We do not reign in the gun lobby, nor analyze the reason the second amendment was placed in the constitution, as a means to defend the country, when we had only meager armies, needing citizens to volunteer in times of crisis. Do we still need citizens armed for battle when we have a standing army, the National Guard and armed and capable police?  Some of our citizens apparently become bored and angry and decide instead to go on a killing spree as a means of recreation.  Does what we are allowing now make any sense in our modern democratic society?

If we reduced the number of guns, removing assault weapons, weapons with silencers, pistols with more than 6 bullets, and only allowed standard hunting rifles and shotguns limited to 3 shots or less, would we reduce the episodes of violence?  Not likely, given the anger in our population.  BUT WE MIGHT REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CASUALTIES IN SUCH VIOLENT ACTS!  If we banned the so call gun stocks that convert semi-automatic rifles into automatic weapons, if we limited the number of bullets permissible in one magazine to 7, have we infringed on a gun owner’s rights to bear arms?  NO!  A RESOUNDING NO!      

It is not a ban when we simply regulate the types of weapons allowed in a democratic free society and reserve everything else for the police, the National Guard and the Armed Forces! Will we be any less safe if we do this?  NO!  A RESOUNDING NO!  This is no different than regulating how many rabbits I am legally permitted to hunt in one day, or whether I can take a buck with less than 4 points.  Hunters abide by numerous regulations, as do all sportsmen who want to preserve their right to hunt.  We could do the same and preserve the right to own guns in a more sensible way!

Why can we not easily regulate the type of weapons allowed to be carried by law abiding citizens in a free society?  The fact is, we easily can!  The National Rifle Association currently opposes any ban on a citizens’ right to bear arms, including their right to covert semi-automatic weapons to automatic, such as was used in the horrific massacre of innocents in Las Vegas!  We will likely never know what caused this one crazed lunatic of a man to do this.  But we can take reasonable caution, even new laws forbidding certain weapon types to make sure this does not happen again.  News reports says that most of the gunfire was discharged in the first 9 minutes.  A slower weapon would have killed less good people!  Are we so dense we cannot figure this out?

We all know when someone wants to kill someone else and are intent on doing so, there is not much anyone can do to stop it.  We can advocate for more money to be spent on the mentally ill in this country and perhaps help some of these poor souls to get the help they need.  Ask any physician anywhere and he or she will tell you the type of mental illness we regularly see in our clinics and hospital Emergency Rooms.  We have already spent more on our prisons and every state in the nation is bursting at the seams with prisoners.  We are already tightening our borders and sending criminals back home.  We have done very little, even nothing to address the root causes of domestic violence.  This could be an opportune time for such a conversation.

I am not advocating the banning of all guns.  I am advocating a little bit of sensibility in how we regulate the most dangerous type of weapons.  If you wish to keep a handgun on your bed stand at night or carry one legally in public places, I am not saying anything about you.  If you are a hunter or simply wish to go the shooting range to relieve your frustration at your life’s ills, go to it.  But for those who purchase weapons with the intent of making these weapons into assault rifles to kill innocents, I argue that you and any person like you is not welcome in my country.  If you intend to commit criminal acts and go on killing sprees of innocent people, then you will be treated as the criminal you already are!

God help us, to at least have a public debate.  It is not an infringement of the second amendment to regulate the types of weapons a citizen can legally own.  Only a truly dense person would believe otherwise or those who are making lots of money manufacturing weapons whose only purpose is to kill and maim human beings!  God help us, I say.  God help us all!

In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, who came to seek and to save the human family, not to see us destroy and maim each other with weapons of war, we make our prayer for God’s help in this time:

“Oh, Lord, our Savior, you came to seek and to save the lost and the dying.  We are all today in need of your loving grace.  Gather up those who have died this innocent death and usher them into your kingdom of joy, endless peace and happiness.  Thank you for the heroes among us, men and women who risked their own life to save others.  Thank you for our first responders who daily do so much to help and protect our lives. Thank you for those physicians and nurses, paramedics and general citizens who went above and beyond to save the lives of as many as they can.  O God, in your mercy, hear our prayers.  Help now the politicians and our president to do something good for us!  We know they are beholden to many persons with many political agendas.  Yet in this tragic time in the life of our nation, rule and over rule in the affairs of the children of men and bring from this tragedy newness of life, renewal of hope, and assurance that our faith in our elected officials is not in vain, that even those who take money from the National Rifle Association can still have in their heart a place to protect the innocents of our nation.  Hear our prayer and deliver us, O Lord our Savior, into the light of a new coming day!

In Jesus name we pray, to whom be all glory and praise forever!  “Amen and Amen”

Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

bww