Your humble correspondent has been absent from the pages recently. I have been on the road and coping with family illnesses and my time has not been my own. But I have been aware of the recent rash of shootings–and admittedly, my own faith has been tested in the recent news cycle even more so than usual.
I have never been a gun enthusiast, and when I was home from college during spring break one year, I was walking up a street to a bar with a friend of mine when I thought I heard a car backfire. The sound of buckshot raining down around us and the site of a shotgun being pulled back into an apartment window told me otherwise. While I support the Second Amendment, I will state that there are indeed some people who should not have access to firearms. Case in point, the drug addict who was in withdrawal and decided to try and draw a bead on my friend and me.
In the wake of the latest tragedy in Texas, the Daily Wire is reporting that a cadre of Democratic legislators is calling for stricter gun control measures. And who knows? They may get them. After all, this administration began its reign with a flurry of executive orders.
Yes, guns can be used for heinous purposes. But they can also be used for defense, hence the spike in gun purchases over the recent years. And some would argue that that defense includes protecting basic freedoms.
As the nation reels from yet another horrific loss of life, no one seems to be mourning that loss. But the pontifications have begun. The emphasis is not on the deaths of children, since life only seems to have value to those in power when it is convenient. No time for sorrow, not even a moment of silence for those who left this world far too soon.
Why? Some of you who are of age may recall the first Clinton inauguration. During the festivities, which included a military flyover, actor Ron Silver publicly groused:
“At first I was I was aghast at the clash of images, pacifist vs. militaristic, liberal vs. conservative, us vs. them. But then it came to me, hey, those planes are ours now. Those are our planes” (sic).
Yes, I know, Silver came to his senses later in life, but in context, the meaning of the quote cannot be missed. Simply stated, a weapon capable of leveling a town is an abomination in the hands of conservatives. In the hands of leftists, the same weapon is an asset.
Related: I’m Not Desensitized to School Shootings. I’m Desensitized to the Predictable Reactions.
These are, after all, the same people who will rend their garments over the recent atrocities and a bit gleefully promote, advocate, and fight for the right or, more appropriately, the rite to abort children. And before anyone of a leftist bent starts to comment, as an ex-lib I was in the streets chanting “Women have died because of Hyde” probably long before you were a bad intention in your parents’ libidos.
These are the same people who managed to ignore the bloodbath in Afghanistan. These are the same people distracted by a shiny object or a cloud shaped like a duck when it comes to the ever-mounting body count in Chicago. These are the same people who gleefully extolled the violence that resulted in lost lives, arson, and, in at least one “zone,” contributed to a myriad of crimes. These are the same people who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Soros-supported attorneys who are habitually soft on crime. They are against violence except when it is “their violence.” Violence is perfectly acceptable to these people so long as it represents a means to their end.
And so the cycle will begin again. A culture focused on hatred, lust, anger and, yes, violence will produce another shooter. And the people who profit from those same vices will use that act to secure power and privilege.
One cannot perpetuate chaos and then lament the effects. One cannot support the degradation and taking of life on a Monday, only to declaim it on a Tuesday. One is either for the sanctity of life, or one is not. To do otherwise is to lie. I can tolerate quite a bit. But don’t lie to me.
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