Sandy Hook as a Societal Indicator

In Newtown, Connecticut one man took the lives of 20 children and 8 adults. Why he did it we do not know at this time yet the media pundits are raising the issue of gun control again and misrepresenting the facts of the matter.

I have heard on T.V. of how the .223 round is a large and destructive round, "really?", and conjectures of his family and his mindset stated as fact. As to the properties of the round, it is small yet powerful and the shape makes it quite destructive to flesh but ineffective as a deer rifle. It is a good round for the military and is plentiful but serves little function for the general public other than target practice. His mindset may never be really known and educated guesses may be the only thing possible but don't feed it to us as fact. The greatest question that goes through my head is, "When does the constant broadcast and reporting of the incident become more heinous than the event itself?"

Another question that needs to be asked is, "Why does there seem to be an increase in these mass shootings?" Is it because of the proliferation of guns? Are there really more guns available now per capita than thirty or forty years ago? I do not think so. I think the reason is more attributable to societal trends and choices than the multitude of arms. For several decades the choices that we have made which devalues life and desensitizes us to bloodshed and the horror of war, have produced the fruit of actions like Newtown, Portland, Aurora, and Columbine. There has been an outright objective by a very vocal portion of this country to divorce ourselves from God by first eliminating Him from our schools to the point of denial of His mere mention in a graduate's speech. In the same light our drive to legitimize abortion has had a similar effect. The only way to make acceptable the notion of infanticide is to sell the idea that a fetus is not truly a living being. Akin to this is the pursuit of legalizing euthanasia, if the life is not worth living then put it out of misery. All three of these things combine to fertilize the mind of irrational people infected with feelings of resentment and anger to act on it in just the way we have seen.

Other means of fertilizing the irrational mind is the tidal wave of very graphic video games which glorify bloodshed, criminal behavior, and killing whatever is defined as an enemy. Granted the industry is correct when it states that a video game does not turn people into killers. What they do, though, is motivate those that might be predisposed to acting out in anger and/or hatred to engaging in the means that have been demonstrated by the graphic imaging.

There is nothing that can be done for the families by this nation other than keeping them in prayer. Those that are close to them, should hold them in their grief and cry along with them. My prayers are that God's comfort and peace will be with them and they that experienced loss, will come to the point of appreciating the time that they did have, rather than perpetually living in grief and resentment.