Friday was Wear Orange Day. This is a program created by Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. I wore my shirt all day even if it was just around the house. Bernie and I intended to go to Clearwater for a walk to support gun control legislation. We wouldn’t have been able to manage the one mile walk but we could have listened to speakers and donated money for the walkers. We were deterred by a $70 fill-up in Bernie’s car and a recent exposure to Covid. Instead, I decided to write a blog.
It is a risky thing to do. I have friends and family members who are gun owners. As far as I know they use firearms for hunting and a few carry small guns for personal safety. Some of these have taken offense at my statements about gun violence. For a reason I don’t understand, they take it as a personal affront. I admit that about a year ago I backed off from posting anti-gun info on Facebook, but now I know I have to speak out. It is my belief that differences of opinion on this issue (and many others) has more to do with a person’s media choices than anything else. My blog and Facebook are the most public ways I have to communicate what I know to be true. The death of our children is too important to worry about people taking what I say personally.
In recent weeks, every time I see a child walking with a parent or a group of kids playing in a park, I find myself praying for them. “Keep them safe, Lord,” I say. But I know that that little boy or girl may some day be put down by someone’s bullet.
Where is this God I pray to? I am not sure. I know Jesus had a special place in his heart of children. “Let them come to me,” he told the disciples…his ADULT disciples. He knew that the children were under the protection of the adults, so he addressed them, not the children. Again, where is God? Why does God let such bad things happen to such innocent little persons?
The answer: He doesn’t. God created humans to be his hands and feet in the world. Our passions, when grounded in love, are His passions.
Hunters, keep your guns and bring home the deer or the elk for your family’s table.
Handgun owners, keep your guns but be sure to secure them lest they get into the hands of some curious child or some disturbed person determined to harm others.
Those of you who own military-type weapons that can kill multiple people in second, get rid of them. Donate them to the military. You shouldn’t have one unless you are designated specifically to use them in defense of the country.
If you believe that criminals and others who have been known to cause harm to others should not be able to have a gun, then support background checks and red-flag laws…THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE FOR!
If you believe this is about mental illness, support the hiring of counselors in schools and funding for mental health services and drug and alcohols treatment programs.
And anyone else, if you think this is not your problem, then turn off the news so you don’t have to see the bodies of children torn apart week after week.
If you are person that is not disturbed by what is happening to American’s children, then you are one that worries me.