This is Pastor Tim’s Article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, April 4
May God bless the people of Nashville and specifically the families affiliated with the Covenant School where 6 human beings were just gunned down in cold blood. As of the writing of this article, I have no idea who the shooter is and I don’t care. That person is a scourge on society and because they decided to go into a school and shoot children, I am glad they are dead. I’d say they got what they deserved, but they are going to face a much greater judgement than the court of public opinion. That is what they deserve.
They don’t make medals big enough to pin on the police officers who responded and ended this evil rampage minutes after it started. They saved the lives of children. This deviant murdered three children and three staff people. That number would have been much higher without police intervention. As a society, we owe these officers tremendous and nation wide thanks.
But I am predicting they won’t get that. The debate on gun control is already raging. Sure, let’s argue politics over the bodies of dead children. That is a classy move. Especially when it isn’t less guns that would have prevented this, it is more. Had this lunatic thought someone in that school would start shooting at them the moment they brandished the weapon, they might have through twice about what they wanted to do. One murder is too many, but in this case, 5 more people died as the police rushed in. I am in no way faulting the police, but that psychopath chose this private school on purpose because of the lack of security. It was not a random choice by a depraved mind; this was a calculating sociopath.
Do you know how many mass shootings have been committed this year? This is #179. Today is March 27, this year is only 86 days old. That is more than 2 per day. The study where I read about this said that a mass shooting is an event where 4 or more people are injured by a shooter. If there were people there who were armed as these mass shootings began, do you think there would have been 179 incidents where a maniac would have had time to shoot 4 people? The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
Look, I get it. The prospect of more people carrying guns is frightening and I am not exactly comfortable with it either, but what is the alternative? More laws against guns? How many laws did this felon break to shoot these children and staff people in this school? If someone has it in mind that all they want to do is hurt people, a new rule is not going to deter them. The only thing that will stop them is someone better equipped and better trained who is willing to stop the shooting as quickly as humanly possible.
You might notice I am choosing my words carefully. I feel angry about this because I am tired of it. What is going on with people that would make them shooting kindergarteners be the only way they can express themselves? There has to be something wrong not only with those individuals, but there also has to be something wrong with a society that is producing this many depraved people. Something is broken because something is wrong. Someone deciding to shoot grade school kids is the symptom of a much greater problem. Until we figure out what in God’s name that problem is, we need to be willing to prevent innocent deaths by stopping threats as quickly as possible.
You and I live in a world where people decide to shoot innocent children. Just let that soak in for a moment. Something in our world is giving people permission to go out and kill children who barely know how to walk and talk. May God have mercy on us all.