Common Sense Gun Control
By Bren Brown
It’s 2021, can anyone direct us to where common sense actually resides these days – because we certainly hear about it often – especially in the news as of late with the phrase “common sense gun control.” In a culture of cancelling everything that honors and reveres our wonderful differences, where we say we follow science but apparently ignore chromosome science, we ponder what it actually means when we hear the words: ‘common sense’ gun control.
We get it!
Undoubtedly every person who dies at the result of a shooting, creates a very sad ending, too soon. Literally, every single one brings tears at some point to my eyes when we get the details. You know what first drew a tear on this last shooting in Colorado? Sadly, it was the story of how the shooter was bullied. I hate bullying. Hate it. I’m not saying this wasn’t a terrible person, or that his actions were in any way justified, it just made me sad. Please don’t try and twist my words. I have not heard the victim’s stories yet, and undoubtedly the ache of sadness will be much worse when I do. Makes you ponder why we get the shooter’s details before the victims, but then again, does it? We are quick to want to know who would do such a thing. What reasons? We want to make sense out of the chaos. We want to understand.
Or, do we?
I would contend that we don’t really want to understand. We want to see if the profile fits “our narrative”.
What we want, as Americans who get fast food in minutes, who cannot watch a video longer than 3 minutes and who seldom read books–what we want are quick fixes. We want pills to lose weight—when we know it takes diet and exercise. We want computers that are faster when we get information in a flash compared to the days of Encyclopedia Brittanica (yes, I’m that old). We want phones and connectivity to the internet that creates immediate response. We want airplanes to get us there quickly when there was a wagon train that built this country on trips that took upwards of a year. We seldom seek the road less traveled, and we seldom stop and do the hard work for anything. We want what we want—now—and preferably free. No monetary cost. No physical work. No spiritual introspection. Now.
But, what if I told you, that I tire of these shootings coming back to firearms? Think about some common sense for a second. When a drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a Mercedes and kills someone, does anyone immediately call for control of Mercedes. Fast cars. So deadly. No, because it makes no sense. Mercedes is no more deadly than Fords. They both can kill innocent people when misused by humans who choose sin. That’s right, I said it. Sin. Sin has consequences whether we like it or not. Cars of any make or model are not responsible for highway death. Not suicides, not homicides, not accidents—cars are tools. Do you see where this is going? Yes, firearms are TOOLS. If we want to lessen firearm misuse, “gun violence”, we have to see that guns are not capable of violence. Only men perpetrate violence on their fellow men. It has been happening since the very beginning when Cain killed Abel with a rock. God did not blame the rock. He blamed Cain.
Let that sink in, He blamed Cain.
And, shouldn’t He? We should blame the shooter when a firearm is used in a horrific way like it was in Boulder. But, if we really (REALLY) want to solve this matter of sin, there will have to be some hard work done. We will have to understand the degradation of the family unit. We will have to understand mental health. We will have to understand sin as it relates to man. This is hard work, and it won’t come as easily, or as fast, as the Big Mac you just ordered, but we could make progress if we would focus professionals on the harder work and quit trying to blame inanimate objects for decisions that are human.
And, for the love of all things holy, please stop looking to the firearms industry as if we are the boogeyman.
No firearm manufacturer, retailer, or responsible firearms owner feels good about what has happened with gun violence, but taking away their livelihood and lifestyle—which, by the way, is the fully AMERICAN lifestyle—will not solve these problems. It will only strip you of your American rights instilled for some very important reasons in history. Crack a book—start there. Understand why this freedom was woven into our constitution and then start the hard work of healing a nation with fragmented families, spiritual health, and mental health issues. We are all in this thing together, and when common sense is not all that common, we need to stop, listen and learn, because by simply saying that common sense gun control is needed, we are not moving anywhere as a nation.
