Another School Shooting; Another Call for Gun Control - But Is That the Solution?

Last week's shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, rekindled that American debate regarding gun control and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.  That Amendment states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  For the past nearly two and a half centuries, that amendment has guided the American response to matters focusing on guns.  Yes, some safeguards, such as firearm registration and waiting periods and background checks have made the ownership of guns safer.  The United States Supreme Court has upheld the right for Americans to possess firearms. 


But, whenever there is a tragic incident where guns were used, the immediate cry is for "gun control."  An example of such conversations occurred on Sunday when ABC "This Week" Host George Stephanopoulos interviewed Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick about the Santa Fe shooting.  Stephanopoulos began his interview: "Children who've never known school without lockdown drills expecting what should be unthinkable.  Santa Fe, the ninth fatal school shooting this year reflected in this stunning fact: There have now been more students or teachers killed by guns in U.S. schools than active duty military deaths in 2018.  A year not even halfway over."  (www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2018/05/20/abc-host-pushes-gun-control-ignores-devaluation-life).


The Lieutenant Governor's response was: "George, should we be surprised in this nation?  We have devalued life.  Whether it's through abortion, whether it's the breakup of families, through violent movies, and particularly violent video games....  But we, again, we have to look at our culture of violence, just our violent society.  Our Facebook.  Our Twitter.  The bullying of adults on adults and children on children.  We have to look at ourselves, George.  It's not about the guns.  It's about us.  Can there be gun regulation?  Gun control?  I believe that starts at home, George." 


This Lieutenant Governor really "hit the nail on the head."  We do live in a culture of violence.  Violence sells on the big screen - in fact, the more violence the more tickets that are sold.  The language we use toward one another is filled with hatred.  Domestic violence has reached epidemic proportions.  We worship at the shrine of violence.


But I think there is a second problem that is little addressed.  It primarily concerns our young people.  They are growing up in a world where the line between fantasy and reality is blurred.  They play video games where the object is to kill as many of the "bad guys" as possible.  Yet, those images of the "bad guys" keep reappearing.  Perhaps death is just a game.  They attend movies where one star is shot to death; yet the following week that star reappears in a new movie.  Again, there is that thought that perhaps death is just a game.  So they take a gun and shoot others thinking that death is just a game to be played.  Yet death is a stark reality.  There is no "do-over" with death.  There is no "recovery" from death.  There is a finality with death that I believe many of our young people today simply do not know. 


So, is there a solution?  I can assure you that the solution is not the confiscation of guns, yet I believe that that will ultimately happen when the Antichrist begins his rule over this world.  Perhaps a limit can be placed upon who can purchase and use weapons that are primarily designed to kill other humans.  Not everyone needs a military-style weapon.  Perhaps our young people should be trained to discern more clearly between fantasy and reality. 


The ability to own and use firearms is almost as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie.  The Lieutenant Governor of Texas was correct - it is not guns that kill; it is the person using the gun.  Friends, if we were to use the arguments from George Stephanopoulos, then automobiles should be controlled because more people are killed by cars in a year time than by any other instrument. 


It is time that we return to the biblical understanding of the condition of man's heart - it is inherently sinful (Jeremiah 17:9).  The Apostle Paul exclaimed it this way - for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  We have a heart problem - not a gun problem.  It is time to take a hard look into the heart of America.  How America needs what only Jesus can do - change the heart.