Monday Musings...

Welcome to the last week before Christmas, and it should not have become a week over which such a huge pall has been cast.

Unless you've been tossed away on some deserted island, you cannot have avoided the tragedy that went down in the small hamlet of Newtown, Connecticut this past Friday.

Over two dozen families will not have a Christmas to speak of, and it was due to a lone gunman who forced his way into the elementary school there and destroyed the lives of the victims and their loved ones.

And, of course, in the immediate aftermath of such a despicable display of pure and unadulterated EVIL, there is another outcry for...GUN CONTROL.

Our "fearless leader" has stated he will "do everything in my power to see that this kind of thing does not happen again."

Now, if that means invoke ANOTHER "Executive Order" to disarm the general public or diminish our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT via the 2nd Amendment, that is a road that such other infamous notables have trodden, such as Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao...well, you get the idea.

Guns (and the "control" of them) is NOT the answer...

It never is, and never will be.

I've spoke to this time and again (here), and it should never become "old" in that sense.

At the very top left of this blog is a SEARCH BOX...try typing in "gun control", and then read my previous posts going back SEVERAL years.

What we basically have with the shootings in CT, as well as the Aurora movie theater and even the Amish school in PA is not a gun issue...it's a PEOPLE issue (there, I've said it yet again).

We used to have (for the lack of a better term) "institutions" for people who displayed behavior that would be considered out of the realm of normalcy.

We also called them ASYLUMS.

Philly had a place called BYBERRY, up along Roosevelt Blvd.
And, we also used to manage to keep the people inside of such places AWAY from the general public.
During such times past, how many mass shootings did we ACTUALLY have, and with even less gun controls in place than we do today?
Basically, NONE.
I don't wish to minimize the tragedy one bit. When about 20 CHILDREN are murdered for NO reason by a psychopath that is determined to cause harm to others, especially the innocent with no seeming provocation, it should serve as a call TO arms...not AWAY from them.
Invariably, these shooters will actively seek out a place where they can do the maximum carnage.
That means places where there are NO guns to stop them.
What we, as a society need to do is seriously examine several aspects OF our society, and nowhere in this mix will it come down to gun control.
1) We need to re-examine our views on MENTAL HEATH CARE.

We used to have a time when people with disciplinary issues early on, were removed from the regular classrooms, and placed into schools where they could receive special attention, and by that I mean STRICT CODES OF CONDUCT...and consequences for deviation from such.

When people displayed behavior that would be other than normal, we took them OFF OUR STREETS, and in many cases, institutionalized them in facilities that could better address their "specific needs".

Granted that wholesale lobotomies were not conducive to behavioral changes...it turned people into vegetables in many cases.

And electro-shock therapy also had it's share of ups and downs.
Of course, there was a Dr. Jose Delgado, who postulated, and then proved that people could be "controlled" remotely via electrode implantation, and later by electromagnetic transmissions.
Look him up, if you dare, and see what "could" be a solution to such bad people.
It smacks back to Michael Crichton's novel The Terminal Man (this was also a movie starring George Segal)

We found a much EASIER solution...that isn't working as designed, however.
Where WE, as a society really dropped the ball was in the case of allowing abnormal people into a normal society, in the name of "compassion".
Since the late 1960s, we've been striving to be a more UNDERSTANDING society, and since then, we've had our share of mass murders.
We've MAINSTREAMED those who would normally be incarcerated behind barred doors and windows, we've tried to become "best friends" to our children instead of being PARENTS, and we've managed to lose our edge in education because we've been teaching DOWN instead of continuing to raise OUR standards both of living AND of education.
2) If we are to continue allowing bad people to walk among the good in our society, all in the name of compassion, mind you, then we HAVE to take preventive measures to assure that the GOOD folks don't become harmed or killed BY the bad ones.
If that means we turn our schools into armed facilities, we've little choice at this point.
We've already had to install METAL DETECTORS to keep the students from bringing weapons onto the classrooms (and Paul Harvey mentioned such things BACK IN 1965, if you listened to Friday's video that I posted).
3) Where do we then "draw the line" when it comes to what people might say, and how they (or if) they will act upon what they HAVE said?
Do we employ a "thought police" to arrest those thinking about bad things?
Anyone recall a movie called MINORITY REPORT?
Anyone ever read Orwell...or Huxley?
And who determines WHO is merely spouting off about something, or actually in the contemplative phase of acting upon whatever abnormal behavior they are prone to?

Those are just the basic tenets of what we can debate regarding their specific efficacy.
If anyone believes for a minute that FEWER guns will prevent such crimes...they are sadly mistaken.
One man believes that MORE guns will deter such crimes.
In today's paper is an article relating to the gun-control issue.
Here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121217/NEWS03/312179964/1006/NEWS
In this story, there is mention of an economist, one John Lott, who wrote a book entitled: "More Guns, Less crime".

In his book, he suggests that gun control has had the unintended consequence of making mass shootings MORE likely.
(who knew?)
Lott is NOT a 2nd Amendment advocate, or even a gun enthusiast. He was forbidden to have even a BB gun when he was young, nor does he and his wife allow HIS children to have toy guns, and yet, he states that the data presented does NOT lie.
Since the 1950s, in every public shooting where three or MORE people were killed, the setting has always been one in which guns had been BANNED.
That would include our SCHOOLS.
Granted, this is a time for grieving, and we must allow ourselves that time, whether we're actively involved with this tragedy or not.

I know, I was devastated when I heard this come over the air on Friday, and I knew the shooter would kill himself, rather than be taken into custody.

All I kept thinking was how such a person could have so LITTLE REGARD for human life to knowingly CHOOSE to go to a school and murder innocent kindergarten children (and the aduklts there).

That just pissed me off when I think of such an evil person that could fly under the radar that way for that long.
Now, you have to understand that we are ALL capable of such devastation...and not one of us is totally "immune" to such behavior.
The only manner in which we all differ, is that each of us has our own "button" - that specific thing that, when prodded, will release our inner beast, the mindless primitive that resides in us all.
A mother might turn into a murderer when she sees her child being beaten by a stepfather, or perhaps a father will kill a boy that raped his daughter...we ALL have our own "thing" that will set us off.

We, as opposed to abnormal people, also have an "ace up our sleeve" that prevents random behavior such as that...it's called COGNITIVE CHOICE.
We CHOOSE to not kill anyone when we wake up today...or tomorrow.
But that is never to say we are not capable to do so.
We practice SELF-CONTROL, and we might even believe in the law...and judiciary to mete out punishment when required.
*** Lastly, I pray that the parents of the slain children can ask God for the strength they will need in the coming days, and that HE will provide the comfort that I know the parents, family, and friends of those lost are currently seeking.
There are no easy answers to this tragedy, and jerking knees is no solution either.

What we need to do is everything in OUR power to make sure that PEOPLE such as this shooter are not placed in a position to do what he has done.
We are still a compassionate people, but we need to temper such compassion with common sense, and a willingness to combat evil, wherever it rears it's ugly head on a DAILY basis, for as Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, "we wage this war against rulers, authorities and principalities, more than with flesh and blood".
May God receive these children (and adults) into his loving arms.

And may we renew and strengthen our own faith at this time of year.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.