So yesterday morning another lunatic went in and shot up another nightclub and another 50 people died. Lots of questioning going on...was this guy (who had a semi-Muslim name) an ISIS terrorist? Was this a hate crime, since it was a 'gay nightclub' (as most reports said)? Were the guns he bought legally purchased? Why was this guy, who had been questioned by the FBI several years ago, allowed to buy these guns earlier in the week? And why, of course, do politicians of every stripe state their regular blather about 'thoughts and prayers' being with the victims when in fact nobody will do a damned thing about preventing this from happening again next week or next month?
Not long after I arrived at the office this morning a man in the community called seeking advice. Basically it came down to that he felt guilty that he wasn't sufficiently disturbed about what happened. Yes, he would have been more upsetting to him if it happened in a school or somewhere else, but that it was a gay club made him feel bad that he didn't feel bad enough. I honestly admire his concern; I don't know that I helped him, but I did tell him that likely a)we are all weary of these stories, so it is natural to shrug our shoulders...aren't we tired of the outrage? b)The best thing he could do was to show sympathy and compassion and a tender heart to those around him. I wish I would have said (I tried saying it but it didn't come out right) that if you let your heart be led to do compassionate things, then your feelings will follow.
Yet I failed in my advice, because I am so tired of these things and the inevitable gun control arguments, because nothing gets done. The NRA has sufficiently poisoned the waters for so long that there is no hope. If, as I have read in several places, there is a gun for everybody in America, this means there are 300 millions guns out there. 300,000,000, most of them not registered or trackable. So, let's say that Obama puts in a gun control measure tomorrow to make it where there are no more gun purchases, that Wal-Mart really does stop selling AK-47s and pawn shops aren't stocked with walls of guns for whoever would want one...is that going to end the killings?
Let's say that he goes even further, and orders the ATF or FBI or some other agency to start rounding up guns. This would play right into the hands of all the 2nd Amendment crazies, as they proclaim that the government is coming for their guns so that they can oppress the people. How many shootouts would follow? How many guns would be hidden? How many more terrorist attacks would come not in the name of Allah but in the name of Freedom or the Flag or My Rights or whatever else the lingo is today? Once again, the NRA has so allowed so many weapons to be bought over the years (300,000,000) that such a task of even the most draconian government would be impossible.
It's not a question of desire or even will, but simply reality. Perhaps this is why 'thoughts and prayers' still get mentioned...but maybe what we need to pray for is that God will suddenly dissolve all these weapons, like he dissolved manna in the wilderness if it stayed over to the second day. I'm sure that many of the crazies would think that Obama was still at fault for this, but then again I'm not so sure God is desiring to do this. I'm becoming more sure that his judgment on us is that we are simply reaping the fruits of the stupidity we have allowed ourselves to be led into in recent years.
