Too many guns... would not have stopped is man

[Jon Estes]

This man, as a boy, was dealt a bad hand and lived with many tragedies and disappointments. I am not excusing the evil he perpetrated.

It was reported this morning that he has been hearing voices to kill people. No gun law would have stopped that if he chose to act on it without an AR15. The voices of evil were winning in this mans life. This is one of the extreme tragedies of a fallen world.

The hope, for less crime, is never fewer guns... for man will kill with or without a gun. It is a spiritual problem.

Q - Where is the church?

A - Tucked away neatly in their nice built buildings, defining themselves by their friendliness not by their passion to reach the nations (including their own).

Speculation - This young man would have probably been neglected by the status quo SBC church today because he would not have fit in.

Q - Where is the church?

A - Absent in the marketplace. Not doing all they can to reach those hurting and troubled. I guess it is easier to make it about guns being removed instead of the gospel being inserted.

It is time to learn from this and see the church rise up and do all we can to stop the next guy who is out there thinking about such things. The church has the answers this young man needed and continues to need. Maybe the church needs the answers.

[KeithE]

[Jim]

So now the old “guilt trip” syndrome must be applied to churches, especially regarding the attendance of young people in church activities. What a crock! The mainliners are busy endorsing every lewd activity imaginable (even protesting that leads to looting, burning buildings and overturning police cars) and expect the young people to have any respect for the law or civility? Evangelicals have little impact because young people are tired of hearing about God's wrath concerning the sanctity of marriage, for instance, not to mention a glorious eternity in hell. The generation that set the norms in the 1960s-70s set the pattern in both society and the churches, at least the mainliners...if it feels good, do it. Chicago averaged 54 murders per week in 2017, many if not most among young people. Was that the church's fault or the culture with which the hippy-dippy crowd has cursed the nation? Most young people don't go to church, in the first place, so what to do? Most older people don't, either, at least with any consistency. The predominant guru worldwide with respect to “spiritual” matters is the Pope, who presides over one of the most corrupt institutions imaginable, especially with respect to social matters like pedophilia. The church becomes less important every day because it is more of the world than in it.

[KeithE]

[Jon Estes]

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

Are we saying in our country that the Second Amendment gun rights are more important than the lives of children? If so, that should send every pro-life Christian into the streets. Could our guns have become not just our expression of the Second Amendment but also our way to ignore the Second Commandment?

[Jon Estes]

[Jim]

All the charts, graphs, and polling mean absolutely nothing concerning the young people and the church. The young people have done far more to change the church than the church has done to change them. Check out the hip-hop praise teams that entertain the congregations with the swing-and-sway, bob-and-weave and mikes two inches from their non-singer mouths, and britches with holey knees. Churches hold multiple services so they can have one (maybe two) reserved for the young people, featuring twanging guitars and adolescent texts to three-chord tunes, along with drum-sets that have to be enclosed in glass cages, lest not a word be heard or understood. Check out the atmosphere in worship services, especially preachers dressed as if they're on their way to the beach and just dropped by. Churches hold special “super bowl” services to remark one of the most orgy-oriented events in the country, millionaires bashing in each others' brains and halftime shows that glorify nudity and obscene music with writhing bodies emulating whatever perversity is fashionable at the time. (Okay, I have to go on hearsay on that last because I don't watch it). Yet, I do watch at least some of the game so I indirectly contribute to an orgiastic defilement of the Lord's Day. The fad of the 1980s-90s was the rewriting of hymns so that they offend no one, especially women who tried to completely emasculate them, never mind that God is referenced exclusively in scripture as he. The church is on the verge of becoming an object of ridicule, not least because of TV-evangelist-millionaires and the Pope, who can't make up his mind if homosexual behavior is good or bad, and whose congregants have left him long lost in the dust. There are a lot of churches that do good things, food programs and help for victims of weather anomalies, for instance, but fail miserably in getting out their message because they have no message or it's been so watered down that folks just laugh. I'm old enough to remember the “Blue Laws.” Anybody else?

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Haruo]

"Open image in new tab" if it's not all showing.
Pretty sure Rev. Winfrey won't mind me posting this adaptation of her hymn written in response to the Las Vegas massacre last fall.

[Haruo]

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

BTW, Jon, your post title does not make sense to me. Suggest you re-write it or explain it.

[Dave Roberts]

While I realize the failure of law enforcement on this one, as the son of an officer and as one who is a certified 911-communications officer, I think you need a dose of realism on just how thinly law enforcement is stretched in this country. Calls are received every day that are referred to officers and to the appropriate agencies. Because this young man did not have prior arrest record for violent offenses, he would not have been at the top of the list. In most states, the FBI has two or three offices (more or less depending on population density and the more recent criminal history. An FBI office is seldom more than 15 to 20 agents who cover wide areas. Where I live, the closest office is 60 miles away, so a report would have been put to the next agent with business in this area. Also, Parkland, FL, had a population in its incorporated area of approximately 30,000, so I doubt that more than 100 officers served in its department. When you break that down to administration, patrol, detective division, and allow for officers away attending various certification classes or advanced training, that probably left no more than 6 to 8 officers working any given shift. From what I have seen, the response times were remarkable and interagency aid was swift in coming. However, the blue line is very thin in most places in our country. I have worked in 911 when the shift sergeant was holding as many as three calls per officer awaiting dispatch because of more urgent situations. It's easy for those reports to slip through cracks or still be in a busy officer's in-basket.

Second, most schools in this country were not built to be easily secured. For example, my wife worked for a mostly rural school system where some buildings were located as much as 12 miles from the closest law-enforcement dispatch center. They were built where land was available, but often there are no physical barriers between schools and roads, neighborhoods, and businesses. Often schools are in multiple buildings with additional mobile units under covered walkways because local jurisdictions rent these rather than to build needed facilities, so doors are left open to provide those in the mobile units access to restrooms and other facilities. In addition, many schools have classes going to outdoor playgrounds, so doors are opened to allow classes to leave and enter. Often, students must go out and cross courtyards to go to gyms, shops, cafeterias that serve multiple grades from different buildings, and athletic facilities. Public streets may run through campuses. Security is almost impossible. To make buildings secure across our countries will cost billions of dollars in retrofitting and replacing current facilities, some of which have open ground-level windows because they are not air-conditioned. Securing campuses will not be easy of cheap.

Third, the current attitude toward public education in this country is to treat it as the dumping ground for those students who can't go elsewhere, so public school systems are often predominantly African-American and Hispanic. Parental involvement is very limited because the most active and concerned parents already have their children in private or charter schools. The abandonment of public education both to inadequate facilities and financial support leaves schools without the counselors and resource people to work with students like the perpetrator in the Florida situation.

Fourth, the absence of church people helping disadvantaged students leaves them even more vulnerable. I received a note today from a lady who goes to read to kindergartners each week. I have been in two churches that offered tutoring programs for those who were struggling academically. Others have worked to build mentoring relationships with troubled students. We need far more, not less in our current situation.

Sorry about the length of my rant.

[KeithE]

[Rvaughn]

[KeithE]