Thou shalt not kill, or properly translating the Hebrew, thou shalt not murder. What is difficult to understand about this? This statement sits at the core of almost all religious and moral codes. No matter whom you believe issued this commandment, it is the centerpiece of this issue. The debate about safety in our schools, gun control, and the second amendment is missing this key idea!
The statement does NOT read, “thou shalt not kill, except in school.” Or “Thou shall kill if someone threatens your ownership of weapons.” It doesn’t say that arming good folks is okay to defeat bad folks. Nope. Don’t kill. No murder. Clear enough? It doesn’t matter if you are talking about a gun or the person using it: no murder. None!
Regardless of your views about guns, could you deny that murder is wrong? How can people of integrity and those who see themselves as religious object to attempts to stop murder and safeguard innocent lives? How can people who are anti-abortion be pro-school slaughter?
If protecting our children from being murdered is not a high enough priority, what is? And by “protecting,” I don’t mean more murder. I mean preventing, not reacting or responding. A gun in a school is the problem, not the solution. Many a murder has taken place with armed guards present.
An argument in favor of placing more guns in schools says that we don’t really want protection, we want more murder. We want kids killed in the crossfire or before the “bad guy” can be stopped. By the time the gun arrives at school, church, or the movie theater, the battle is lost. We must do better than that! And arguments about guns and the military, arming teachers, hunting, and other distractions are attempts to turn the conversation away from the real issue. They are deflections and diversions.
What does it mean to say that unregulated and slavish worship of gun ownership is the value we hold most dear? Is your weapon is more important than our children or safety? The evidence is overwhelmingly clear: guns in civilian hands do not make us safer.
These massacres are intimately connected with racism, hatred, and sexual violence. Are these the values we hold dear? In addition to automatic killing machines, will gun lovers also defend these horrors? Where are those who speak of law and order? They want to protect us from foreigners, whom they say will do bad things, but will defend those at home who are actually committing horrible acts! This is crime and disorder – and it’s immoral tacit supporters.
Inaction is immoral. The long rationalizations, diversions, semantic gymnastics, and retreats into straw arguments are the last refuge of an inherently evil proposition: we must address the issue of guns or sacrifice those we love – as well as our integrity, morality, and safety.
Where are the statespeople who have the courage to solve these problems? Where are the real leaders who will face the problem and act? The students of Parkland, Florida are leading the crusade as the current administration wades further into a swamp of sin.
If our elected officials don’t have the moral fortitude to act, they are failing us and do not deserve to serve. It is already too late. Now is not soon enough.
There are many issues that are difficult, complex, and tangled. This is not one of them.
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not be an accomplice to murder. Thou shalt not watch children be slaughtered in their schools and do a rhetorical tap dance justifying their massacre. Stop the shootings!
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