Land of the Free

Ho hum.  Another school shooting.  Two young children killed while praying in church at this Catholic school, seventeen others injured.  In and out of the news headlines in 24 hours.  Have we gotten so numb? If this latest tragedy moves us not at all, perhaps we can have a real conversation now.  The one positive thing our federal government has done in the last decade, banning bump stocks, executive order by President Trump, was overturned by the supreme court on the technicality of what makes a weapon a machine gun, ignoring basic math of how many people could be killed per second, with and without this implement.

The gun lobby will say there is no proof that banning assault rifles or having checks for a history of mental illness or a criminal background will keep people safer.  Of course not.  They’ve made sure that no federal studies on these measures can be done.  

However, www.worldpopulationreview.com has some charts that are compelling.  As of 2022, there are five states where less than 20% of the population owns a gun.  The highest deaths per 100,000 among those states is 5.3, the average being 4.3.  Conversely, there are 32 states where at least 44% of households have a gun.  The lowest gun deaths per 100,000 among those states is 11.7, the average being 18.9.  Gun deaths in states with 44% or more is 4.3 times higher than in states with 20% or less.  I’m not a statistician, but that is what I believe is known as a “strong correlation”.  More guns equals more gun deaths.  Crazy.

www.everytownresearch.org indicates that “every year, more than 4,300 children and teens are shot and killed and over 17,000 more are shot and wounded. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens. Witnessing shootings—whether in their schools, their communities, or their homes—can have a devastating impact. Children exposed to violence, crime, and abuse are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol; suffer from depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder; fail or have difficulties in school; and engage in criminal activity.”  

I hesitate to write a politicized post.  I have tried to reserve this blog for faith-based matters.  And I have come to the conclusion that the United States is not a nation of Christians anymore.  Among the 62% who call themselves Christian (down from 78% in 2007), less than half of those attend church regularly.  25% of Americans seldom attend and 31% never attend (www.news.gallup.com).  Among Protestants, 44% attend every week or almost every week and 43% attend seldom or never.  Among Catholics, 50% attend seldom or never.  

At 41%, white evangelicals own guns at a higher rate than any other religion in America, according to Pew Research Center.  If we want to hunt and provide food for our families, that seems fine.  I might even say it would be beneficial for people to know that animals had to die so we can eat our bacon cheeseburgers and fried chicken and all that other healthy stuff.  If you want a gun to feel safe, to my way of thinking, we are not trusting God, not loving our enemies.   

What are we doing to our children’s spirits to put them through live shooter drills?  This is a far cry from the 1960s when school children hid under their desks to protect themselves from nuclear bombs for one simple reason: no bomb ever fell on this country.  Conversely, an estimated 3 million children in the US are exposed to shootings per year.  That is 4% of the children in this country.  Every year.  And now these shooter drills are in every school in the country.  

Per the CDC: Among US high school students in 2023:  40% reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year.  20% reported seriously considering attempting suicide in the past year.  There are a myriad of reasons why our children are feeling hopeless.  Social media and the internet seems a huge part of it as all these trends started worsening with the arrival of the ubiquitous cell phone in 2007.  Divorce rates, drug abuse, rise of the agnostic and atheist and the associated perspective that our lives are really very small and unimportant.  What are we to do?

Luke 22:35 Jesus said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”  The word “sword” here is more properly translated as a machete, a tool.  The twelve disciples have two between them and Jesus says, “that is enough.”  Hardly reason to think Jesus is encouraging us to arm ourselves.

Romans 12:9 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  Turn the other cheek.  Perfect love casts out all fear.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.