"While there is no law, or set of laws, that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil, if there’s even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try," Obama said in his rollout of his gun control proposals. However, laws restricting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens should be enacted anyway because they might save "even one life," according to Obama.
So, Obama wants a ban on scary-looking guns, so-called "assault weapons" (which are not true assault weapons because he shot requires a trigger pull). He wants a limit on the capacity of gun clips to ten bullets as well as universal background checks. He admitted these measures, had they been in effect, might not have prevented the Newtown, Columbine or Aurora tragedies. He ignored the fact that the weapon used in Newtown was legally owned by the shooter's mother in a state with an assault weapon ban. The national assault rifle and magazine capacity limitations were in effect at the time of the Columbine High School shootings. The Aurora shooter would have passed a background check since he had no criminal record and had never been adjudicated as mentally incompetent before the theater shooting.
Okay, so let's apply Obama's same logic to another right -- the First Amendment -- and see how far it flies with the liberal gun-hating crowd. Let's address violent video games and movies. Granted, researchers differ on whether or not these cause increased violence or aggression. But, since they might for at least some mentally ill individuals, we should go after them because we might be able to save at least one life.
Let's just outright ban the production and sale of the most graphic, scariest violent video games or movies. Nobody to see them to be entertained; they serve no useful purpose. Let's require background checks on all purchases of permitted video games and movie DVD's or Blu-Rays, including any transfers from one owner to another. And, certainly, we need to restrict the length of such games or movies. Let's issue movie attendance licenses to be allowed to buy violent movie tickets after a thorough background check. Of course, we would need to restrict television viewing of these movies, too, so let's require cable companies to do background checks of their customers. Then, require the cable companies to restrict violent shows to certain stations and only customers who passed the background checks could subscribe to those stations.
Sure, these measures restrict the free exercise of the First Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. But, if we could save just one life by enacting them, wouldn't it be worth it? If it isn't, then neither is it reasonable or right to restrict the free exercise of our Second Amendment rights. What is fair for one is fair for the other.
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Newtown Tragedy: We Need Revival
The unthinkable has happened, again. A crazed or angry young man has targeted innocent children in their school. “Why?” we ask.
Donald Trump said, after the election, that we need “a revolution.” He is wrong. The nation needs revival. We need another Great Awakening.
Just this past week, a six-hour concert for Sandy Relief was held. Many of the greatest rock-and-roll artists of our times joined together to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy so they could rebuild their homes and put their lives back together. The musicians put aside any of their differences or competitiveness for a good cause.
We need the great ministers, priests and rabbis to come together for “Newtown Relief.” Our nation needs their help to rebuild our spiritual lives and recalibrate our moral compass, if we truly want to stop tragedies like the Newtown killings.
Our founding fathers were godly men. They founded this nation on the bedrock of the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly the Ten Commandments. The nation’s first colonial constitution was written in 1639 for Connecticut. In this document, "The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut," it proclaims:
Instead of protecting them, God would give them over to “corrupted minds (1:28).” Among the consequences of abandoning godly knowledge would be “all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice (1:29),” including murder and malice. We would, Paul prophesized, end up with people who “have no conscience…no kindness or pity for others (1:31).”
Already today, the gun banners are rallying to use this tragedy for their political purposes. Soledad O’Brien lost all her reporting objectivity and had an emotional meltdown this morning on CNN over gun control.
Would someone please tell O’Brien and other reporters that Connecticut has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws? The state requires registration of all guns. It bans so-called assault rifles, although some were grandfathered in if purchased before the ban. Law enforcement is still investigating, but it appears that the guns used in this tragedy were legally owned and registered by the killer’s mother.
More gun laws would not have stopped yesterday’s gunman. He would have either stolen other guns or used another means to kill. Just yesterday, a villager attacked children with a knife outside a primary school in China, injuring 22. According to the New York Daily News, China, where privately owned guns are outlawed, has had numerous deadly school attacks in recent years. Others have used bombs, box cutters, automobiles, and toxic chemicals to perpetrate mass murder and mayhem in this country.
The innocent children and educators of Newtown who lost their lives yesterday were victims of a corrupted mind. The killer, obviously, had no conscience. He had neither kindness nor pity for others. He was a psychopath or a sociopath. The guns are not to blame. The perpetrator is.
What can we do to prevent future tragedies like Newtown, Columbine, Portland, and Aurora? A spiritual renewal is absolutely essential. The Bible in Second Chronicles 7:14 points the way:
Donald Trump said, after the election, that we need “a revolution.” He is wrong. The nation needs revival. We need another Great Awakening.
Just this past week, a six-hour concert for Sandy Relief was held. Many of the greatest rock-and-roll artists of our times joined together to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy so they could rebuild their homes and put their lives back together. The musicians put aside any of their differences or competitiveness for a good cause.
We need the great ministers, priests and rabbis to come together for “Newtown Relief.” Our nation needs their help to rebuild our spiritual lives and recalibrate our moral compass, if we truly want to stop tragedies like the Newtown killings.
Our founding fathers were godly men. They founded this nation on the bedrock of the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly the Ten Commandments. The nation’s first colonial constitution was written in 1639 for Connecticut. In this document, "The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut," it proclaims:
"We came to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess as also the disciples of the churches, which according to the truth of the said gospel, is now practiced among us."We are no longer the godly nation our founding fathers envisioned and assumed we would be. The Apostle Paul warned in Romans 1:18-32 what would happen to a people who turned its back on God and mocked His moral law.
Instead of protecting them, God would give them over to “corrupted minds (1:28).” Among the consequences of abandoning godly knowledge would be “all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice (1:29),” including murder and malice. We would, Paul prophesized, end up with people who “have no conscience…no kindness or pity for others (1:31).”
Already today, the gun banners are rallying to use this tragedy for their political purposes. Soledad O’Brien lost all her reporting objectivity and had an emotional meltdown this morning on CNN over gun control.
Would someone please tell O’Brien and other reporters that Connecticut has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws? The state requires registration of all guns. It bans so-called assault rifles, although some were grandfathered in if purchased before the ban. Law enforcement is still investigating, but it appears that the guns used in this tragedy were legally owned and registered by the killer’s mother.
More gun laws would not have stopped yesterday’s gunman. He would have either stolen other guns or used another means to kill. Just yesterday, a villager attacked children with a knife outside a primary school in China, injuring 22. According to the New York Daily News, China, where privately owned guns are outlawed, has had numerous deadly school attacks in recent years. Others have used bombs, box cutters, automobiles, and toxic chemicals to perpetrate mass murder and mayhem in this country.
The innocent children and educators of Newtown who lost their lives yesterday were victims of a corrupted mind. The killer, obviously, had no conscience. He had neither kindness nor pity for others. He was a psychopath or a sociopath. The guns are not to blame. The perpetrator is.
What can we do to prevent future tragedies like Newtown, Columbine, Portland, and Aurora? A spiritual renewal is absolutely essential. The Bible in Second Chronicles 7:14 points the way:
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
How Many of Me Are There?
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
|
Favorite Books
- Adrift by Steven Callahan
- American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us by Steven Emerson
- Christmas Train, The by David Baldacci
- Christy by Catherine Marshall
- Civil War Two: The Coming Breakup of America by Thomas Chittum
- Conquer the Crash by Robert P. Prechter, Jr.
- Contemplation in a World of Action by Thomas Merton
- Dark Night of the Soul, The by St. John of the Cross
- Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
- From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden by Amy Stewart
- Great Late Planet Earth, The by Hal Lindsey
- Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, The by Constance Cumbey & Ron Rigsbee
- Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales
- Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
- Man Who Walked through Time, The by Colin Fletcher
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
- Old Glory: A Voyage Down the Mississippi by Jonathan Raban
- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
- Religions of Man by Huston Smith
- Republic, The by Plato
- Running with Angels by Pamela H. Hansen
- Seven Storey Mountain, The by Thomas Merton
- Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
- The Girl of the Sea of Cortez by Peter Benchley
- The Pleasures of Philosophy by Will Durant
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- Walk across America, A by Peter Jenkins