America needs evil control not gun control

In the tragic wake of the horrific massacre in Las Vegas, what have we learned?  In some regards, not much.  We know innocent thousands were targeted, hundreds wounded, and scores slaughtered, but as of yet no clear motive.  Only a strange solitary assassin has emerged, but no one including his family really knows anything about him.  Why would a reclusive apparently wealthy loner determine to such a dastardly deed?

Whatever his motive, the killer was clearly a psychopath to wantonly murder random anonymous harmless humans.  Such cruel carnage on unsuspecting concert goers can only be inspired by pure evil.  We may never know how evil enveloped this murderous monster, but we can be sure whatever his radicalization, it was evil at its core.

The Los Angeles Times compiled a list of “Deadliest U.S. mass shootings, 1984-2017.”  Of 52 incredibly malicious massacres, 38 have been in this century.  That would indicate the incident rate has doubled since 2000.  The locations, scenarios, and incomprehensible motives vary, but the certain common thread is only evil can instigate the taking of innocent life.

When confronting senseless brutal bloodshed, we search for answers and solutions to the callous chaos.  How do we stop it?  Sadly, human nature easily embraces killing when morality is abandoned; human history is a gory testament.  The masses demand safety and when panicked will entertain any remedy.  So predictably, political opportunists never waste a good crisis and immediately started screaming for gun control before the bodies were even cold.

Like every other aspect of American life, another tragedy is manipulated and politicized.  At the proper time however, every such heinous crime should be closely examined for future prevention.  The danger is very real, but the debate is unfortunately typically superficial and vacuous. 

Liberals are sure the actual guns are to blame for violence and not evil people perpetrating violence, so for them it’s simple: remove the guns - no more crime.  They bitterly cling to this notion despite ample evidence gun control doesn’t work.  Look no further than Chicago as the poster corpse for gun control.  Chicago has among the nation’s most stringent gun control laws and still the highest murder rate.  Not to mention, gun control laws only impede law abiding citizens.  Criminals seem to have no problem breaking the law to get guns.

Conservatives believe regardless of weapon it’s people who commit crimes, so we need to work on the people (notice, not control them).  But the discussion typically crashes here.  Conservatives believe liberals are just people with incredibly bad ideas, but liberals believe conservatives are incredibly bad people with just an idea.  So we get into the same worn out ultimatums for gun control followed by the same pointless acrimony.

Remove the guns, but evil still abounds.  People have a tough time with evil.  They know good exists like the heroic acts in Las Vegas to save strangers and selfless acts to help neighbors in the last few hurricanes.  When it’s obvious like Las Vegas, we know it.  Otherwise we seem to find it awkward to acknowledge, but it’s as simple as darkness is the absence of light.  Evil is no more than the absence of good.

America is witnessing good either eroding or retreating, but it’s subtle.  With more people consumed by their individual self-gratification, they more readily throw off morality as a nuisance and Christianity as quaint at best.  The short cuts for self and convenience for indulgence hide from the glare of good and what’s right.  Evil is given fertile ground in the shade.

The particular peril we face is that liberals are right about the need for gun control; not because of the firearm, but because an ever more immoral society cannot handle liberty.  Freedom requires common morality and individual responsibility, so when the people eschew those virtues – they probably can’t be trusted with any weapon.

“All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.”  John 3:20


A Reader2018-05-21 20:38

How many innocent children must die before the “Liberalism” is forever banned? Read more at: BTW, great article, thank you.

A Reader2018-05-21 15:26
