Connecticut Shootings

Today, the school where I teach held its minute of silence for the murdered schoolchildren and staff in Connecticut.  I must confess that on Friday, I wept and prayed all the way home.

Yet, as usual, the Left cannot let a good crisis go to waste.  The cries for gun control are fast and furious, and probably something will be introduced in either the House, Senate, or both toute de suite.  Yet much as a I deplore the killings, feel concern for the safety of the students where I teach, and recognize the vulnerability of schools, I cannot join this hue and cry.

First of all, further restrictions on firearms ownership are not going to work.  Connecticut and New Jersey, the two states where Adam Lanza had most recently lived, have some of the most stringent gun controls in the land. I have also lived in foreign countries with even more stringent controls than any in the USA.  However, these nonetheless experienced shootouts between law enforcement and criminals in which the latter were as well armed as any modern military.  Long ago, Nixon got it right when he said that if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them.

Second, I cannot join what is a purely political call for controls.  The Obama administration, through its bungled fast and furious gun-walking operation, failed to prove a flow of weapons from the USA to the Mexican drug cartels, and ended up getting US agents killed along with at least hundreds of Mexicans.  Hence, the lofty tones from the White House promising support for a bill to be introduced in the Senate sound hollow.

Third, too many laws being made do little save inconvenience the law-abiding.  I see it as moot when someone asks "why should a civilian own assault weapons".  Why not?  A moral, religious, and self-controlled people owning assault weapons will probably also take precautions in their storage and display. The typical hunting rifle is probably a better weapon to use in a sniper's attack on a politician, law enforcement officer, or distant human victim.  Yet the bulk of these are dangerous only to non-living targets or deer in season.

Fourth, I am disgusted by cynical politicians and callous media types exploiting the griefs of the families of Newtown. The Obama administration's minions have famously said that they will not let a good crisis go to waste, so forgive me if I am tempted to doubt the public displays of mourning.

Last of all, I see the random mass shootings that have disturbed our land as an issue far deeper than the availability of weapons.  We have, as a culture, exorcised God and His Anointed (Psalm 2) from our national life in the name of freedom, and we are dismayed that the wrath, cruelty, violence, and hatreds that fear of God long kept in check have bubbled to the surface.  All that matters to us today is our fifteen minutes of fame, and there are those for whom it may be had in a horrible act of murder and self immolation. Perhaps the lost soul of Adam Lanza derives some solace in the pits of Hell that it went out with the proverbial bang.

Yes, I mourn with the people of Connecticut. But I refuse to join the political hue and cry.