My Yearly Valentine’s, Our Monthly Shooting

My Valentine’s day was slightly out of the ordinary. My girlfriend scheduled an oil change by accident and we ended up spending Valentine’s day at the Toyota dealership and Dunkin’ Donuts. Afterwards, we went to our evening classes. My Professor threw confetti at me and gave me candy when I read ἀγάπη. It was a strange night. The Professor was the second of three we would have for our course. My girlfriend and I left, we usually carpool, and drove around for a while telling stories and spending time together. I finally got home, brushed my teeth and got to bed. Then I remembered another school shooting happened where 17 people died. I went to sleep.

I wish I could say I was deeply affected. I wish I could say I was surprised. I wish I could say that someone who was not only reported to the FBI, but clearly exhibited signs of aggression being able to get an AR-15 is something I never could have imagined. To be honest, none of it surprised me. Seventeen more people are dead, a dozen more injured, and an entire community is traumatized.

How much tragedy can a society endure before it becomes comatose?

I’m still frustrated that gun laws won’t be changed to any degree.

I’m frustrated that gun fanatics are utterly unable to have a conversation with “gun” and “law” in the same sentence without frothing at the mouth, even if it only has to do with enforcing laws that should be fairly reasonable to all parties and doesn’t result in responsible gun owners losing any rights.

I’m frustrated that so many people die to senseless tragedies that I not only lose count, but lose the capacity to experience any visceral emotion towards it.

I’m frustrated that the current culture is so anti-intellectual that people are unwilling to check their own positions for the sake of having meaningful dialogue.

I’m frustrated that I actually have to ponder the future decision of whether or not I’ll send my kids to school simply because I have to weigh the risks of them getting gunned down against the potential social stifling that occurs if I homeschool them incorrectly.

I’m frustrated that there can be so many examples of efficient gun laws, but people trust organizations like the NRA or other fairly obvious propaganda.

I’m frustrated that people still think our government is going to rise up against the people one day, and that the citizens will manage to fend them off with automatic weapons, thereby justifying their purchase.

I’m also frustrated that I don’t have an answer. An answer to, “What about when you de-arm citizens and only gangs have weapons?”

I’m frustrated that Scripture doesn’t give a clear-cut answer to the problem, that God doesn’t open up the skies and make everything right, that lofty ethics seemingly has nothing to say to communities that lose people so young and so horrifically.

I’m frustrated that this problem requires use of agency and that I don’t know how to best use that agency. I’m frustrated that it seems like nobody else knows how to use it either, and that everyone is running to fairy tale conclusions in order to avoid the terror that is speechlessness in the face of tragedy.

Taking away everyone’s guns will likely not happen, and simply spanking your children will likely not be the beginning of the major moral reform of America. Some compromise must be made, but compromise takes unity. The type of unity required is not a sort of hashtag, well-wishing, or merely expressing sympathies; it’s a unity in action. God became a man and united himself with humanity by taking on the human condition. He didn’t send sympathies, thoughts, kind words. He sent his Son. He acted in human history to do something about the problem. If there’s anywhere we can start, it’s by getting in motion to act. We must act together, even if we don’t entirely agree, it is necessary to unite in order to start thinking about how to solve the problem in a way that involves us doing something about it, rather than shrugging off responsibility for our community. As much as I wish I could be neutral, the spotlight is on those who rabidly support gun ownership and abhor all laws controlling the purchasing of guns. If there’s going to be any forward movement, it has to start with willingness to talk about the problem openly. Every shooting that goes by thanks to someone legally buying a gun and using it to harm others is that much more blood on all of our hands. When is enough, enough?