Of all the mass shootings in America, none rattles us like the school shootings. For obvious reasons, they cut us to our core. We cry in unison from a thousand miles away. Sandy Hook, Parkland, Columbine; now Uvalde. Between sobs, our leaders invoke such rantings as, "Something must be done!" But, there is no mention of sacrifice because there is no heart for true sacrifice where sacrifice is desperately needed.
These mass shootings are like singular plagues, the kind that rocked Egypt during the time of Moses - boils, lice, blood, darkness... "even darkness which may be felt" (Exod. 10:21). Each plague, though devastating, failed to sway the Pharaoh from keeping his Hebrews enslaved. What will it take to sway America from keeping its guns? (I wouldn't want to say even if I knew because it will be so terrible that all 330 million of us will run with our guns to the nearest ditch, and throw them into the fire; and, strange to say, suddenly begin to live better lives.) Just think, for all of the ten plagues God visited upon Egypt, it took the parting of the Red Sea to free Pharoah from his addiction.
Let's face it: Americans are no more capable of solving their gun problems than Pharaoh was of solving his issues. Such a daunting task is not for men and women whose true purposes is to serve their vanities. First, overshadowing all efforts to fix this problem is the 2nd Amendment - Americans' right to bear. Apparently, that right is sacrosanct. But, how sacred could such a right be when no other nation espouses it; nor does any other document, save our own U.S. Constitution, which once espoused this right 250 years ago? Given a chance today speak for itself, that same Constitution would not dare espouse that right again.
Today, America is a war zone: 400 million guns in the hands of 330 million citizens. What are the targets of so many weapons? Can't be wild animals. We've killed most of them. The few poor creatures left must keep their heads down last trigger-happy America shoots the survivors for fun. The targets must be Americans, themselves. With that in mind, what individual would unilaterally disarm, leaving himself at the mercy of fellow Americans who choose not to? The alternative is what we have: Lock & load: (keep up with the Joneses)
For Americans to simply toss their guns away would be the equivalent of the antebellum South having the strength and wisdom to cast aside slavery. They didn't have it First, the South was firmly convinced that slavery was their right, safely embedded, as it was, in the Constitution. Second, they loved slavery; they loved their slaves.
Thenn, came Abe Lincoln, and the Union army. The northerners wrested slavery from the South, and ended it. The North was able to do this only after spending the previous 200 years weaning itself off of slavery. Imagine how impossible ending slavery in American would have been had the North continued to embrace it along with the South. Fortunately, we were deeply divided. When it comes to guns, however, borth sides of the Mason-Dixon line is enthralled - so much so, that he - (guns) - is unregonizable as a killer, and is played off as an innocent, even as a savior. Do not be fooled. Guns are not innocents. They are bombs waiting for a chance to explode.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and the subsequent ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolished all slavery in America. This nation was finally released from its self-imposed shackles - freed to become the democracy it had previously only pretended to be. Now, we are faced with another such desperate, and defining moment.
Four hundred million guns in the hands of America's citizenry is every bit a failure of our society as was four million African-Americans in bondage. Only through the abolishment of these weapons will America become a society worthy of the future the Founding Fathers once envisioned. Absent that, America will continue its headlong descent into more death, and darkness.
