There's a sport these days to bully the gun; it's easy to pick on an inanimate piece of metal. On the other hand, other root causes have a loud voice. Hollywood talks back. Money talks back, too, on behalf of video games and the mental health/pill industry. There's not much press about a violent psychotic drug reaction being a possibility for the shooter's rage. That would seem worth probing.
When we see nothing done and legislators saying "it's complicated"...we feel like a dog chasing its tail. Of course it's complicated. But what if the answer were simple? What if we all just valued God's words regarding these roots of evil:
EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE. "I will be careful to live a blameless life...I will set no worthless thing before my eyes." Psalm 101:2,3 "Everything is lawful, but not everything is beneficial." 1Corinthians 10:23
DISSOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. "Each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Ephesians 5:33 Why? "We are members of His body...for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh...the mystery is great, but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:30-32 Marriage is a picture of Christ and His church, whom He loves and serves and never leaves.
DECAYING MORALITY. "Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit." Galatians 6:8
MENTAL ILLNESS. "Through all that they suffered, He suffered too...in His love and mercy He protected them; He lifted them up and carried them..." Isaiah 63:9
APATHY. "God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating." Colossians 1:13,14
DESENSITIZATION. "Be gentle with one another, sensitive...forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave." Ephesians 4:32
LACK OF SOCIAL CONTACT. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another; and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25
POP CULTURE. "But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end." Romans 6:21
UNEARNED FAME. "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You; for Your name and Your renown are the desire of our souls." Isaiah 26:8
God records three instances where He allows the taking of a life:
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:4)
JUSTIFIABLE WAR (Genesis 14)
SELF DEFENSE (Exodus 22:2)
Exodus 22:2 says "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him." Our legal system read that and translated it "justifiable homicide". We have been given the right to protect ourselves by God, and then the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms in that defense.
Most gun owners would be willing to tweak loopholes to be reasonable. They just know that law-abiding gun owners are not the problem...so they shouldn't bear the full weight of the solution.
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