Gun Control: Common Sense Depends On Your Personal Sensibilities…

In the wake of the horrific events that took place last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT much has been said regarding the need for and appropriateness of addressing gun laws in the United States. I'll admit it, I too have engaged in some heated banter on my personal Facebook page regarding the issue. In fact, I regrettably spent much of the two days following the shooting checking in on my FB timeline to see how the people I really care about were going to respond to the jabs I threw at them. I am not proud of that, in the end I wasted precious time arguing with those I love and care for that I should have spent coming beside them to lift up the hurt and weary.

Over the weekend I ashamedly acknowledged that in my anger regarding the situation I had allowed my heart to be filled with hate and vitriol toward the ones I love the most. That really troubled me as I hate squawking with people. It never accomplishes anything except to divide those who could do so much good together. It is so counterproductive and I wish it would just stop. I am sickened by the sensationalizing of all of these tragedies by the media and the shameful lengths they will go to in an effort to provide the most in-depth coverage of an event. I saw a 3rd grader on O'Reilly talking about her "personal experience" during the rampage. Is nothing or nobody off limits?

With that said, I still hold my position that guns are not the problem. I still believe there is much a greater societal issue that is greatly contributing to all of these massacres. These tragedies are a symptom not the illness. It seems so simple and logical to me that there is no way possible that guns can be to blame, no gun fires itself right? Doesn't that about sum it up? How can you blame a tool rather than the person that uses it? Seems like the common sense answer to that question is… You Can't. I pondered that for a good long while, how can people not easily connect the dots?

The conclusion I came to is one that I was not happy to reach. I had to acknowledge that common sense is a relative thing. It really depends on your sensibilities, and if your sensibilities differ from mine then you likely have a much different view of what ideas fall under the logical framework of good "common sense." For instance, if you do not share my religious beliefs and believe that man is inherently good and it is outside influences and manmade tools that cause our corruption then your critical thinking logically leads you to believe the guns are to blame for the killing of those children. Makes sense to me, if that is what you believe fine but I still respectfully disagree. Either way, I am not in the mood to argue about it anymore. We can take it up on a later day, and when we do rest assured I will have a better understanding of what motivates the "gun control" crowd and what will be the best way to shut them down. In the meantime I ask that we all come together and focus on those left behind that need our prayers and love.