This week’s tragedy in Parkland, Florida, marks the 18th (and deadliest) school shooting of 2018. In the last decade, mass shootings in the U.S. have reached epidemic proportions. After each of these heartbreaking incidents, we offer our thoughts and prayers to victims and survivors. We send money to the grieving communities. A predictable public debate about how to prevent further mass shootings lasts for a couple of weeks but leads nowhere. Then we move on, as though each incident is somehow exceptional.
But how many times do they have to occur before we realize that they are not exceptional? The killing of innocent people, whether children and teachers in school, young adults at a dance club, worshipers at a church, or country music fans at an outdoor concert, has become horrifically normal.
There are too many guns in this country, and guns designed for military combat, whose purpose is to slaughter masses of people, are too easy to get. We have the loosest gun laws in the world and more people per capita are killed by guns here than anywhere. Any fool can see the connection.
Maybe – just maybe – the Parkland shooting will be the final straw. Today, tears of grief have given way to outrage. Parents and teachers from Parkland are not mincing words. They are angry that Congress does nothing to curb gun violence. They are demanding action. They say the NRA has way too much power, and that both the President and Congress are too afraid to do what’s right. They are tired of all the excuses, and they want something done now.
At some point in the tired debate about gun violence, there is always a discussion about “the symptoms” and “the disease.” And because this discussion usually carries spiritual implications, I want to address it.
Continue reading "After Parkland, Treat the Symptoms and the Disease" »