Church Shooting in Texas Leaves Me Stunned, Sick

Folks, I am so sickened by this story, but as it’s big news in the United States (and perhaps around the world as well), I think I should comment.

A relatively young man, under thirty, who I shall not name as is my policy, opened fire on a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday morning during worship services. There are twenty-six dead, including a number of children, and among the many wounded is an eighteen-month-old baby.

I don’t understand why this even happened. Much less why a person would aim at children. (There is some talk that he deliberately aimed at the kids, though I don’t know how accurate that is.)

Because this did happen at a church, many in Texas and elsewhere are saying that God must have a purpose for this. (That is, the Higher Power.) Even if we don’t see it, there has to be a reason.

The only reason I can see is that we need to somehow stop these mass shooting events, particularly in churches. The United States is the only country in the world that refuses to pass sensible gun control legislation, and has even rolled back the minor protections citizens had to keep people with demonstrable mental illnesses from buying guns.

That this happened in Texas, which is practically the home of concealed-carry, is even more astonishing.

But in this case, even if the little kids who were among the dead had carried guns, there’s no way they could’ve stopped this guy. He stepped into the church and started firing at people’s backs…whether he was legally qualified to buy the gun or not (there are many questions about that right now), the fact is, he had a gun, he shot at people’s backs in a cowardly and distasteful way, and he has become infamous in the ways of many other mass shooters before him.

I don’t know what we have to do in the United States to get the Congress to wake up. I do know that most Americans support protections to keep people from severe mental illnesses, such as this guy must’ve had to do what he did, from getting guns. And while that will not stop every mass shooter, it will stop more of them…and we won’t be waking up to this sort of thing as often. (I would like to say “at all,” but that’s asking way too much.)

I am beyond tired and incredibly frustrated at all these shootings. I’ve written about so many of them in the past seven years of this blog, and every time I feel emotionally wrung out, almost drained of purpose, when I think about what happened to innocent souls just going about their business and not asking for this at all. (Who would?)

Yeah, once in a blue moon, a shooting like this would be inexplicable. But to happen over and over and over again, in movie theatres, in churches, at concerts…at night clubs…the list goes on and on. And the only thing in common is that the United States does not have the same protections under the law as other countries to keep people who shouldn’t have guns from getting them.

I know many responsible gun owners. I do not want to take their guns away. But I do want to make damned sure that shooters like this guy who just killed a bunch of kids and others don’t get guns…and if it’s true that the system failed, well, we need to find out why that happened. (There’s some talk now that even with the lax protections we have, this guy shouldn’t have been able to get a gun.)

Anyway, those among the injured, and those grieving, need your prayers now. I know that’s not much, but it’s better than nothing…and we all need to do some soul-searching to try to figure out what, if anything, we can do to prevent the next mass-casualty event. (Please?)