My Personal Experience With School Shootings and Gun Violence
A lot of people here seem to think I do not understand what people are going through or the emotions that come along with the gun control debate. Because of this I want to share some personal history. Names/Places will be changed to protect the innocent and other victims.
I was in the 7th grade when Columbine happened. 1999, the year before Y2K, things were supposed to be getting better. The world was supposed to be a better place than before. Then it happened. Students shot and bombs exploding in a high school in Colorado. It was surreal and shocked the nation.
The fear was after Columbine that there would be copycats. And there were. Including a small town in a southern state.
I was sitting at the lunch table. There was a boy, we will call him John.
John was troubled, had a rough home life, and was always in trouble at school. One day at lunch, about a month after Columbine, John looked at me and another girl and said: "I'm going to shoot this school up and I am going to start with you and you."
John normally joked and was a prankster but it shook me and the other girl. We told our history teacher what had happened. Within an hour, John had been detained and we were talking to detectives about what had happened.
The day finally came when John said that he would do something. Police had been watching him. They arrested him in a vehicle that was not his and found he did have guns ready and loaded.
This would have been another mass shooting. But it wasn't. Why? Students said something. The warning signs were not missed.
We did not need more gun control. We needed bravery to say something and a police force that did their job. Gun control is not the answer. It never has been the answer.
The point is, John had issues. Mental health issues as well as home issues. Sadly, he committed suicide several years later. John needed help. That help would not have come from more gun laws. He needed mental help. He needed support for his horrible home life. He needed friends that would love and support him. Unfortunately we the students of that school did not give him that last part that we could have helped.
The problem is not guns. The problem is culture.
Comments
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By the way this is a true story not an illustration.
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Thanks for sharing this unsettling experience. I know many would see this as a reason to arm teachers, or even students as they do in some colleges. But I think it also underscores the insanity of arming anyone. Scripture teaches that we are all born crazy (madness is in their hearts while they live). And even the born again struggle against remaining insanity until the day they die.
In view of this, God ordained the Civil Magistrate, not the people, to bear the sword. And he teaches us to pray for the magistrate so we can live peaceful lives. Even if the magistrate is as wicked as Nero.
So I do not believe Christians should arm themselves while planning to use violence towards enemies against the clear teaching of Christ. But to follow the Sermon on the Mount and to love and honor Christ and his words above the lives of our families or our own lives. All that might be required of us in carrying our cross.
The cross = passively accepting death in upholding Christ's words if necessary.
