How Many More?

Another mass shooting occurred last Sunday at a church in Texas. Twenty-six people were killed.  Last month a shooter killed 58 people at a music festival  in Las Vegas. According to an  FBI study in 2014 there has been an increase in mass shootings in recent years. Three hundred seven mass shootings have occurred so far in 2017. How many more people have to die before laws will be enacted that will ban automatic assault weapons? 

 Image result for free pics of gun controlIn 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., 26 people were killed, 20 of them were young children. Everyone thought that this would be the horror story that would get gun laws changed. But after a few days of outrage, nothing happened. The National Rifle Association has too much money and too much control over lawmakers that nothing was done.

 Mental illness plays a role in these tragic events. Certainly we need more mental health facilities to help angry people  before they lose control and resort to violence. If the NRA would put their money into treatment centers instead of into lobbying for freedom to carry arms, maybe these violent acts could be minimized. 

 Of course there are those who believe that everyone should have a gun to protect themselves from violent people. Then we could shoot them before they shoot us. Do we want to live in a country that promotes violence instead of a peaceful nation that preserves  civility and safety? 

 Then there are the accidental killings by guns. In 2015 at least 265 children under age 18 picked up a gun and accidentally shot themseleves or someone else according to the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. Why are guns openly available  where children have access to them?

 I grieve with all those who lost loved ones in these shootings. I pray for an end to these senseless  killings through the banning of automatic assault weapons and sane gun control laws. 




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