insanity
Guns are clearly a mental health problem in America.
The number of people who have been murdered in this country using guns is staggering, yet we have continued to believe and act that all is well. We have a healthy dose of collective insanity that goes along with our collective amnesia. It’s as if every bullet fired is a shiny new object that distracts us from the pattern of killing.
The “good guy with a gun” mythology is incredibly, racially naive. Jemel Roberson and Emantic Bradford were both legally carrying a handgun, both assisting others during a violent event, and both killed by law enforcement. Their murders were “justified” by law enforcement, because there was confusion about black men holding weapons.
Furthermore, the Dayton shooting shows that, despite trained law enforcement professionals responding in less than a minute, an active shooter was able to kill and injure dozens of people. More people with guns makes the job for law enforcement even more challenging. How in the world can they tell in the moment who is the aggressor? Active shooter scenarios are about stopping the shooter as quickly as possible – that doesn’t leave much time for questions.
There is no justifiable reason besides insanity that we do not require background checks and licenses for owning firearms. There is no reason for an individual to personally own a high-capacity magazine. And weapons kits should also be regulated. Maybe every firearm owner should also be required to be insured in the case of negligence or deliberate harm through the use of their weapons, or every firearms manufacturer – insurance companies wouldn’t bet money on such risk and neither should we as a society.
No one discounts that all of these individual people who have murdered, the gun was clearly a tool wielded for ill intent. People can go around killing people using a knife, a car, or whatever. So yes, let’s get everyone proper mental health care too. But universal healthcare? That’s insane?
So, still we seem happy to feed human sacrifices to the twisted metal gods. It is time for us to smash these false idols, repent, and turn to the Living God.