Again last week, a person engaged in an act of mass murder. Depending on the statistics that you read and believe, this is mass attack 200-something since Columbine. What in the world is going on in the United States and how can it be fixed?
Citizens are aware that the United States is the mass-murder leader among developed countries, with a rate that is exponentially higher than that of any other developed nation. Some blame the NRA, with its concentration on gun rights. Some blame mental health institutions, or the States that would otherwise run them, for eliminating programs and expelling dangerous persons into the general public. Some blame Muslims.
Most blame is placed without credence. Just because human beings have the right to own and use firearms does not mean that we will use them to kill one another. While it may be true that no one would die of a gun shot wound if we took away all the guns, it is also true that to outlaw guns would ensure that only outlaws would have guns. The rhetoric, from either side of the gun debate, is not helpful. It is just empty rhetoric, devoid of significant meaning.
While I certainly believe that our systems should and could do more for persons who struggle with mental diagnosis, I do not believe that persons who so struggle are more prone than any other segment of the population to engage in mass-murder. Perhaps such persons are simply more susceptible to the pressures and directions of the culture in which they live. I do not even know if that research would be found to be true.
To blame it on Muslims, or blacks, or to attribute the shocking rate of mass-murder in the United States on any particular segment of the population is pure racism. Such claims must be rejected as ignorance, as bias and prejudice.
There is something deeper, and more sinister, going on here. The honest issue will not be addressed with gun legislation, not that better gun control might not contribute to a lower murder rate in the U.S. It will not help to remove persons who bear mental and emotional diagnosis to be removed from the general public, though such persons need better support and more direct services. It certainly will not help the situation to kick out all the_____________ (Place racial, ethnic, economic or political bias here.) "They" are not the problem.
We are the problem. Each and every one of us is the problem. We have grown numb to basic disregard for human dignity and become deaf to cries for justice, mercy and compassion. Do not misunderstand, we do okay when it comes to our own. We care for our families, for our type, our kind, our clan. But we do damned little to ensure that justice, acceptance, empathy, generosity or grace are available to those who are unlike us. "They" deserve what "they" have gotten, we say. "They" should do x, y, or z, then we would help "them." The Lord helps those who help themselves.
I am no fan of Dr, Phil. He asks one question that I find to be meaningful in the conditions that have led to the highest mass-murder rate among developed countries: "How is that working for you?"
In the United States, it isn't working at all. We kill one another at an alarming rate.
The fix is not an easy one. It rests in standing with Christ for the innate dignity of every person, regardless of her or his station in life, economic or political realities, race, color, creed, national origin, religion, life-style choices, height, weight, hair color or degree of attractiveness. It is tireless and demanding work, counter-cultural in so many ways. Yet, it is built on the simple ethic of Christ Jesus, sacrificing self in service to those who are in need around us.
Will that work? Is it practical? We do not know. We have never tried it.
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