Proverbs 22:6
6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Parkland, Florida, school shooting follows too quickly on the heels of other recent school shootings. As a teacher for many years you can imagine that I take school shootings close to heart. They break my heart as I can readily picture precious little faces I have loved and taught sitting in seats, feeling safe in their familiar school setting.
On the other hand, as the daughter of a career military officer, I was brought up to have a healthy respect for guns. I grew up with guns: my father’s hunting rifles and the pistol he kept in the house for protection. And frankly, it makes me a little ill to see the mainstream media and social media turn the murder of children into a political platform.
The problem is not the guns. The problem is in the disconnect more and more youth feel from their parents, teachers and authority figures. This is especially true of boys who grow up without a father, like most of the shooters. Another problem is kids are not taught to respect guns in the context of respecting the sanctity of human life. When kids are taught they don’t have to respect their parents, and they don’t have to respect authority, and worse–that human beings are no more valuable than dogs, cats, sheep and other animals, we have a serious problem—more serious than just guns.
Certainly the mentally ill should not have access to guns, depending on their illness and level of sickness, and those with a violent criminal record should not have access to guns. I am all for exercising some intelligence as to whom guns are issued, but to say that the 2nd amendment is antiquated and should be ignored or done away with is short-sighted. As one meme says: “If you cannot see the irony of a gun ban enforced by men with guns, then you fail to understand why the 2nd amendment was written in the first place.”
The root problem of murders by children and teens is the decay of our society, the loss of a moral center, the growing estrangement kids feel from their parents, especially fathers, and the progressive attitude on euthanasia, abortion and situational ethics that teaches our children that all human life is NOT valuable. Human life is not as valued as it once was, our cultural morality has been ripped away in the name of not offending others, and the family unit is no longer as strong as it once was, nor is it built on Biblical principles like it was several decades ago. There’s your culprit.
We have all heard the fact that removing guns from law-abiding citizens does not remove guns from criminals. If someone wants to go on a killing spree, they can use any number of bomb recipes and poison recipes found on the internet or join a gang or purchase a gun from a criminal. Making guns illegal will work just about as well as making drugs illegal has. Let’s focus on the real issues.
Let’s work on restoring a moral center to our culture and stop worrying about who we offend in the process. Let’s put Christ back into homes and schools and our own personal relationship with others, especially our young people so we can truly raise them up the way that God intended.
Also see:
Invest Your Loose Change Each Month with Acorns https://www.christianactivities.com/invest-your-loose-change-each-month-a…
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