I have noticed a horrible trend within the past few decades. It would seem that we are having countless shooting rampages being committed all over the nation. As the years go by, the number of shootings seem to increase. It would seem that there is no place safe, as we have seen then in the workplace, shopping centers, public gatherings, schools and even churches. Clearly, there is a problem, but how do we address it?
The common denominator in all of these cases is usually that of a gun, so that being the case, many find that perhaps the solution lies with the gun. In my mind, as I look at this problem, I do not necessarily think this way, in fact, if you want to be totally honest, guns don’t kill people, but people with guns. That said, we need to look at the people for a solution.
As I look at the news, I see our elected officials going back and forth on the issue. Some cry for tighter gun legislation, while the other stand opposite of that. I would have to say, I am inclined to agree with the latter. The reality of it is that even if we adopt the tightest gun legislation ever enacted, if a person wants a gun, he will find a way to get one. Like the sayings says, “where there is a will, there is a way”. We might find a way to make it hard for some people to get guns, but, who says the only way to get a gun is through those channels? In fact, as long as there as a market for people who want guns, there will always be someone there to meet that need.
We see this throughout our history as a nation. Remember when there was prohibition against alcohol? The laws were firm against alcohol sales, but mobsters like Al Capone, realizing that there was a huge market for people who wanted it, found a way to get it to them and make a profit at the same time. Ultimately, the laws had to change seeing as they could not stop it. This holds true for guns, if someone wants one bad enough, there will always be someone there to make the sale. Oh, and then there is also the whole “breaking into houses” thing. That’s another good way to get guns. The point I am trying to make with all this is that the solution is greater than the concept of tighter gun legislation.
We need to look even deeper to find the root cause of these senseless shootings. What are some of the notable factors to these shootings? First off, it is not the guns, but the people with the guns. While some may say that tighter legislation is the answer, I submit, how many of these active shooters showed signs of becoming an active shooter for a lengthy period of time prior to the shooting? In most cases, there were things that occurred leading up to these events. Not trying to make light of this but I remember a quote from The Joker on a Batman movie, where he said, “all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy”. The point he was making was that he wasn’t always like that, but events taking place in his life brought him to that point.
It actually makes sense. Consider the disgruntled employee we sometimes hear about, who was fired from his job for some reason, and due to this, he has his bad day, causing him to snap. Am I justifying his actions? I certainly am not; I’m just saying that there is a process. With this in mind, consider the mild-mannered, law-abiding citizen, the one you see every day but barely even notice. Even this guy has the potential to become an active shooter. The tightest of gun legislation cannot detect what a person may resort to years down the line. That said, I reiterate my stance on gun legislation, that it is not the solution, why should those of us who are law abiding citizens, knowledgeable and responsible with weapons have to undergo tedious measures to buy a new gun just because there are some who aren’t?
So where do we look for a solution? I think the issue lies with our penal system, especially in the recent years where many states have enacted “soft on crime” type laws. When you look at us as a culture, the one thing that holds true is that we as a people no longer have any regard for the sanctity of life. We do not value life the way we once did. These days, a person can get shot or even killed for merely stepping on someone’s shoes, or for cutting them off at an intersection. For a people that are not capable of making life, we are so very quick to take it. Life has no value today. I was talking to a co-worker recently, and the issue of abortion came up. He is for choice whereas I am for life. In his argument, he brought up the case of rape, and used a minor as the victim. His argument is that she should not have to carry that child. As we talked, I told him, the problem with this is that that unborn child is an innocent victim of a heinous act. In most rape cases, either the perpetrator gets away, or if he does get caught, he gets a few years and he is back in the street, however that child, that innocent child gets the death penalty. What makes it so bad is that as a society, we are fine with this, not even acknowledging that that child is also a life with value in the eyes of God.
Nonetheless, we fight and destroy property for the right to take the life of unborn child, simply because the child is in the womb. If we are fine with this, how can we be surprised about those who go on shooting rampages and murder other innocent people? The bottom line, we need to realize that all life is precious, and should be respected as such. I believe these lessons should start in the home, but when looking at how random these shootings are, I can’t help but assume that this isn’t taught in the home. We are bombarded daily with TV shows as well as music that pretty much glorify the idea of taking life. It has become normal to us in most cases. I personally believe that in most cases, it is due to the breakdown of a functioning family unit that we see this so often. The first step is to re-establish the family unit so that these kids can be raised right.
The next step, and the most important is to deal with our penal system. Torah gives us an excellent foundation for this, and even for those of you who are not Torah savvy, even you have heard of the “eye for an eye” text. In this, we find that in the cases of murder, theft, assault etc. that the verse says what you do to others, gets done back to you. In fact, in the case of murder, there was no trial that was followed by a lengthy jail sentence. Instead, the trial was to very whether or not this was done with intent, and if so, the sentence was carried out immediately. There was no 20-year stent on death row while you are awaiting execution. And when this was done, it was publicized, for all to see. The intent of this was so that when others saw this, they would consider the consequence of their actions before committing a crime such as murder. In reality, this mental visual caused the people to find other ways to deal with their differences than murder. Most people that kill others do it without fear, because there is no fear in our justice system.
As far back as the days of the wild wild west, they still did public executions for murderers. And although there were still cases of murders taking place, I believe the numbers of murderers were far lower than ours today. Some look at this as being barbaric, but consider this, this law came from the very mouth of God, so to call them barbaric is to say the same of Him. I believe when He gave us these laws, it was with the intent that seeing that consequences of our actions would cause us to really think before acting. I think today, we act without thinking about our consequences because not many fear prison, especially those that are in and out of prison. The system that God gave us was perfect, and I believe that if it isn’t broke, why fix it? Perhaps if we went back to His law, in addition to focusing on maintaining fully functional family units, perhaps we wouldn’t need to worry about gun legislation because we would have fixed the solution.
All in all, the further we get away from God and His laws, the worse we get. We can try and try all we want to fix this problem but if God gave us a perfect foundation, how much sense does it make to go and try and build another. In fact all we have successfully done is divide our people all the more. We give a little tap on the hand to the offender and say we need to better understand them, when the reality is, they are fully aware of their actions, and as such, need to be dealt with accordingly. When we fail to enforce justice, lawlessness prevails.
