In The Wake Of Another Mass Shooting; What Do We Do Now?

At least 17 people were killed in a Florida high school shooting on Valentine’s Day, the latest mass shooting in the United States. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student who had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and ordered held without bond. Officials have not identified a motive for the shooting. It doesn’t surprise me that authorities were aware of the killer in Parkland, even before he acted. This is often the case, given our national approach to mental illness. Our God-given freedoms are dangerous. We are free to love, yet equally free to do otherwise. Our American liberties are equally dangerous. With freedom comes great responsibility, and accountability. As a culture, we are hesitant to restrict people’s freedoms, and we lack the financial resources to do so, even if we wanted to. We have a system in place to house someone once he or she commits a crime, but far fewer options to house someone once they are declared mentally ill. Among other recent tragedies are the November massacre of 26 worshipers at a rural Texas church and the October killing of 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas. With each tragedy, we hear arguments about gun violence, mental health, how firearms should be regulated and what’s driving the prevalence of mass shootings. In the wake of the Parkland shooting massacre, there is a natural and emotional nationwide outrage for some serious "gun control". I read one gallup poll that states that 77% of Americans want more gun control in America. This is a trend that I believe is only going to escalate. Many people are just plain sick and tired of our government not doing anything about the recent mass shootings that have seemingly plagued our country. From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week after their classmates were silenced by gunfire. And in Tallahassee, Stoneman Douglas students who survived the Parkland shooting massacre chanted louder than ever: "Vote them out!" Their words echoed through the hallways of the state Capitol, where they demanded a ban on weapons like the one used to kill their friends and teachers. In a day filled with emotion and tears, groups of survivors of the Florida shooting and parents of victims stood feet away from President Donald Trump, Florida's governor and lawmakers. They pleaded for changes in gun law as the nation grapples with how to prevent mass shootings in schools. Throughout a 34-year span, from 1966 to 2006, there were six mass public shootings that resulted in the deaths of 10 or more people. Two happened in educational institutions: the 1966 tower shooting at the University of Texas, Austin, and the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. In recent years, mass shootings have been resulting in more casualties. The Congressional Research Service found that from 2007 to 2013, there were seven mass public shootings in which 10 or more people were killed, and two of those incidents happened in schools. Those were the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting and the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. In the 10 mass school shootings from June 2013 to February 2018, 44 people were killed and 68 injured. What really drives these "sickos" to commit such heinous acts of pre-meditated murder? Why are there more mass killings than ever before? What really motivates someone to be so angry as to take another human beings life? Let me first get this out of the way by bluntly stating that this is NOT a gun problem, this is a moral and mental health crisis that has been inoculated into our citizens (and especially our children!) since the 70's! Simply put, we have allowed our mentally ill to run rampant through the streets AND we have created a Godless society where "love one another as I have loved you" is replaced by hate and kill. Our moral compass is not only broken, it has shattered in to a hundred pieces, irreparable. It has now been replaced by the idea that selfishness is actually a good character. Wrath, as an alternative to empathy. In my opinion, this world is going to hell in a hand basket quick if we don't wake the fuck up! Banning certain rifles and "bump stocks" is NOT the answer! Raising the purchase age is a joke! A gun is not functional until somebody picks it up. It does NOTHING BUT SIT THERE! It is the human being that creates these horrific acts of death, and it doesn't matter if it is a gun or a home-made explosive. Madness will always find a way to carry out destruction and lets face it, pure evil. Everyone thinks that this is the governments problem to solve and its not, it's ours. And it starts at home. It starts with teaching our children the value of life, and what a true gift from God it really is. It starts with real education. Not the dumbed down government version that has been poisoning our children's minds for decades now. It starts with love, and parents actually giving a shit about what their kids are learning and where they're at! We need more control over our schools and what they are actually teaching our children. Until that happens, it's up to us. We also need to take this mental health crisis SERIOUSLY! The warning signs were all over this kid and no one even bothered to pay attention. And the fact is people, that football coach Aaron Feis threw himself in front of students as bullets hailed down to save his students. He was a gun owner and if he would have been allowed to carry a weapon that day, non of that would have even happened! In my eyes Coach Feis did the only other thing that he could have done. He put others lives before himself. I know that "thoughts and prayers" will not bring these teachers and kids back. Nothing will bring them back. We need to stop pointing fingers, and take steps to make sure our kids are protected from this kind of tragedy. President Trump had a great idea that I wholeheartedly agree with in allowing teachers to carry on school grounds. To me that is a step in the right direction. In times like this, it’s easy to say that Parkland would never have occurred if the killer didn’t have access to guns. But it’s just as accurate to say that Parkland would never have occurred if the mentally ill killer had been institutionalized. Last week’s mass shooting that claimed 17 lives at a high school in Parkland, Florida leaves many of us searching for answers. Our free will is an important part of the answer. If God exists and wants us to genuinely love one another, he must first allow us something dangerous: personal freedom. This kind of liberty is risky, because it must also allow us the freedom to do great harm. Human free agency is a double-edged knife, and each of us must decide how we will handle it responsibly. I would like to conclude with extending my deepest condolences and prayers to the parents and to the families who now have to go on without their loved ones and their children and try to make sense of all this. May God hold you in the palm of his hand. Thank you for reading.