Violence

It's been a while.
Last week was the Pork Expo in Peoria.  It continues to shrink.
Seed shipments are starting to arrive.  That means two things.  Spring is around the corner, and the frost must be going out of the ground.
Saturday evening we drove down to Champaign for the Parent Appreciation meal and singing at church.  We enjoyed an evening of good food, fellowship, and praise.
Sunday afternoon we went to T-town for the funeral of my wife's cousin's son who was killed in a car accident.  Oh that good would come from tragedy.

I have been contemplating for some time whether I should weigh in on the gun debates currently raging in our nation following the Sandy Hook shootings.  So, I guess I'll share some random thoughts that certainly aren't new.

Outlawing certain types of guns will not solve any problems  That seems to be the prescribed solution.  Drugs are illegal, and yet our government appears unable to stop the flow of drugs into this country.  We can't even stop the flow of illegal people into this country!  The guns would continue to show up, but they would be in the hands of criminals.  Our liberal government has been selling weapons to drug lords and Middle East terrorists, but doesn't want Americans to have semi-automatic rifles ("assault weapons").
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

The second amendment wasn't about guns for hunting or sport, it was about the right of the people to protect themselves, their family, and property.  And it was for the people protecting against government tyranny.
Guns didn't kill 6 million Jews, their government did!

Why does gun violence seem to be increasing (if indeed it has)?  A hundred people will answer a hundred different ways.  But here are some thoughts.
Gun violence does not exist. Guns do one of two things . . . function or fail.  Violence is from the heart.
Man inherited a sin nature.  Evil exists in the hearts of men.  Man needs conversion and the restraint of the Holy Spirit.
As our society has become increasingly liberal and humanistic, they have have attempted to make God, Christ, and the Bible illegal.  Laws and morals based on Christian principles are removed. The removal of God (and his teachings) from schools and public discourse helps remove moral restraint and gives society over to a reprobate mind.
Secular humanism cannot solve the problems of hearts and minds given over to evil.
We have seen exponential growth of realistic violence on television, in movies, in video games, and computer simulations, which together desensitizes people to violence in reality.
We have become a nation of news junkies and the news media obliges us with nonstop sensationalized stories of murders and mass killings.  Almost making the perpetrators "heroes".
We have broken homes, broken families, and a selfish, entitlement culture.

Violence and mass murders can and are accomplished with all kinds of weapons.
More people are killed each year with baseball bats, than with "assault rifles".



And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
Judges 15:15