BLIND SPOT: Kids with Guns and Kings with Guns

Picture this. The neighborhood ‘siga’ suddenly throws a nasty fit. He goes out on the street, mad drunk and yelling, ‘Sisay maurag diyan?’. He pulls out a pistol and starts spraying hot deadly lead in indiscriminate directions. And bystanders and spectators regret their choice of spectacle for that day. After the dust settles, and the culprit is either in cuffs or has been rendered unconscious, what does the local government and the community do to keep another siga from spewing his madness to death? I know it’s miles away from our yard. But this one’s an interesting subject for reflection on how we approach solutions to community problems. “17 people were killed by a gunman Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida”; and if you’re good with matching days with dates, last Wednesday just happens to be February 14 which just happens to be Valentine’s Day. What a cruel coincidence. Those kids must have been looking forward to their dates. “A gunman set off fire alarms at a Florida high school on Feb. 14, luring hundreds of students out of their classrooms so he could open fire with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle. After firing several rounds, the shooting suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, dropped his weapon and hid among the crowd as authorities evacuated students and faculty members.. Police captured Cruz over an hour later in Coral Springs, located about a mile away.” (www.foxnews.com) The sad part is, this isn’t something new in the United States school, and has become, well, sort of commonplace. There’s actually a wiki page for “List of School Shootings in the United States”. Surprisingly, the incidence dates back before its independence with the subsequent replication to the next century; with a recurrence almost every decade, and at times, multiple shootings in one decade; and I thought the first one was during the Obama administration. What is this? An American tradition? The latest Florida Valentine’s Day shooting caused some stir, as state legislators shocked the wits out of everybody when the body overwhelmingly voted against a ban on assault rifles. Despite the massacre, these guys are still for guns? What has the world come to? And as if that was not enough to give me a splitting headache, President Donald Trump once again lets out one of his careless comments by seriously laying on the table, the consideration of arming teachers with guns as a solution to prevent similar shootings in schools; and I thought that could only happen in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Let’s run it through again. We have the representatives of the people refusing to put a stop on the cause of deaths of the people they’re representing; and a head of state who is suggesting that schools be filled with people carrying guns. First, with the legislators, what keeps them from banning something that clearly causes more harm than good? Is the National Rifle Association that powerful that it could bend human reason? Then, we have the President proposing putting more guns in schools- more guns which potentially could be misused by some lunatic who hears voices in his head. But to give credit to the President, the suggestion has been gaining support; with families of victims believing that if such a setup were in place, deaths could have been prevented, and teachers already signing up to volunteer to carry concealed firearms while in school. If teachers carry loaded guns in school, it brings the probability that these guns could be used within the campus. The students, aware of a concealed weapon in the teacher’s person, could attempt to take hold of it and cause some trouble. On the other hand, an unarmed school community is a defenseless school community. Without protection, any community for that matter, becomes susceptible and vulnerable to any form of attack. Although the thought of teachers carrying guns breaks the ideal picture of a healthy educational institution, these are not ideal times anymore, and evil has mutated in varied forms that anyone must be ready to take a defensive position when need be, anytime. If behaviors are determined by culture and geography, perhaps somehow, to some extent, we share some degree of human nature. Why are social ills not resolved and continue to proliferate? Maybe the very leaders and policy makers are more concerned with personal comforts; rather than the common good. Maybe the solutions implemented open for more potential danger than stopping it. Maybe we are caught up in idealism that the world has evolved past our philosophies and principles. Maybe we’re solving our problems in a similar way. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5