Mom, Apple Pie, Baseball, Chevrolet, Smith and Wesson

          What could be more American than Mom, Apple Pie, Baseball, Chevrolet, Smith and Wesson?  We have strong sentiments about our mothers.  We have an appetite for homemade desserts cooling in the kitchen window (who does that anymore?).  Baseball has been the traditional All-American sport (now superseded in popularity by football).  Chevys have been an icon of Americana (“What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA!”).  And along with our love affair with the automobile a large portion of Americans have had an affection for guns.

            The Second Amendment to our Constitution protects our right to bear arms, and is as rooted in our history as the right of freedom of speech, and supported by one of the strongest lobbies in the country.  I have no problem with people owning guns.  I have family members who love to hunt.  While I am not among them I do benefit from a fair helping of venison stew every now and then.  Hunting is a reasonable activity it seems to me, satisfying a visceral human need, as well as helping to maintain population control among certain species of wildlife.

            Still, I have to wonder why any American citizen needs to have in his or her possession the kind of automatic assault weapons that were owned by Newtown, Connecticut resident, Nancy Lanza, and used by her mentally-ill son, Adam, to kill her and twenty-six other children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.   There is more gun violence in the US than in any other wealthy nation because we have the least restrictions on gun ownership than any other nation.  Ironically, Newtown is the location of the second largest gun-lobbying institution in the US, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

            There is a specious argument that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”  But as one of my colleagues has said, “you put enough guns out there, and somebody’s going to get hurt.”   

A few hours before the Newtown murders last week, a man entered a school in China’s Henan province. Obviously mentally disturbed, he tried to kill children. But the only weapon he was able to get was a knife. Although 23 children were injured, not one child died.*

            I expect that what happened at Newtown last week will not lead to the end of recreational gun ownership, or hunting, or anything of the sort, nor should it.  But I do hope we will finally have a reasonable limitation on the kinds of weapons that none but the military need in their possession.

            And lastly, writing as a Christian pastor, I have to wonder how any follower of Jesus could possibly justify a counter argument.            

*Quoted from http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-the-solution-to-gun-violence-is-clear/2012/12/19/110a6f82-4a15-11e2-b6f0-e851e741d196_story.html?hpid=z2

Tragic shooting

The recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others is proving to be a lightning rod for multiple issues of public policy. Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter, is drawing considerable attention, and the issues relating to this shooting is already being politicized.

There is already a call to “tone down the rhetoric” of public speech. The implication being that the current climate of incivility might have contributed to Loughner’s actions.

There is the deeper issue of Loughner’s mental health and the failure of “the system” in providing him with the necessary health care when his pattern of erratic behavior first started to manifest itself.

There is also the appeal for stricter gun control legislation in response to the ease with which this disturbed young man could purchase a weapon.

I don’t know the solution to all the issues raised by this incident. I do know that there will be blame cast about. I do suspect that there will be those who will use this tragedy to advance their own political agendas.

I hope, however, that we don’t lose sight of the human side of the story. Six people died and over a dozen were injured, needlessly. A young man committed a tragic crime because too many people ignored multiple warning signs that he needed help. At the very least we can hope that we might be more vigilant in offering help to troubled souls before they fall off the edge.

The first George Bush held out a vision of a thousand points of light in the hopes of our becoming a kinder and gentler nation. We have moved further from that vision rather than closer to it. I suspect that 9/11 had a lot to do with that. In the immediate aftermath of that particular tragedy things happened in our country that made me very proud to be an American. The stories of generosity and courage and kindness were heartwarming.

But, since then, in an effort to create greater safety and security, we have instead created a climate of suspicion and distrust. If Jared Loughner had manifested his disturbing behavior in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 I believe he would have gotten the help he needed. But, since his troubled soul was revealed in our current atmosphere of paranoia, seems as if everyone turned their backs on him, maybe thinking, “He’s not my problem.”

Well, he is our problem now. And a system of criminal justice that is already overtaxed will have to deal with one more criminal who might never have been one had he been treated as a patient first. As expensive as health care is, I believe it is cheaper than the costs society will face in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting.

Here’s hoping we reach out to help the troubled souls we know. Who knows what tragedies we might prevent?