Symptoms Of a Bigger Problem

*Sigh* We’ve had to talk about this far too much this year.

As a people, we’re still in utter disbelief, shock and horror at the news coming out of Connecticut. On Friday, a lone gunman shot his mother dead in her home, then went to a nearby elementary school and executed 20 first graders and 6 adults before taking his own life.

As the reports began to emerge and we started to get a clearer picture of what had happened, the picture grew worse and worse until it became literally unthinkable. How? and WHY?

One official said, “Evil visited our community today.” That’s putting it mildly.

Not only was the shooting horrific (all mass shootings are); it seems this man fulfilled the worst possible action anyone could have thought of in the process. He didn’t just kill people or shoot at random. He targeted the most innocent, vulnerable, and helpless among us. He did it at the holidays. And he did it in what had been considered one of the safest communities in America.

And no one knows why he did it–not even his family.

This wasn’t just a tragedy. It was a desecration. In killing these children, this man violated the entire nation, incensing what seems to be the entire population.

The imagery of this horrific act has thrown people for a loop, to say the least. Even from thousands of miles away, people simply do not know how to process this. Social media filled with expressions of grief, heartbreak, rage. People ranting at God. People ranting at the government. People ranting at violent video games and movies. People looking for something–anything–anyone–to blame. Eyes glued to the television looking for some clue that could help them make sense of this. Never have I heard the word WHY so many times in one weekend. Not even at 9/11–at least we could somewhat explain that one. Terrorists hate us and want to kill us–that gave us the WHY we were looking for. But this one’s a head-scratcher; no one can figure out why a person would want to purposefully target and destroy the lives of children he didn’t even know. We have a clue that he was mentally ill, but that’s about it.

As hard as it is to watch what’s been unfolding in Connecticut, it’s almost as hard to watch people try to get their minds around this. The rants, the grief, the anger, the lashing out, the online preaching. The Wild One and I had a conversation about this yesterday. People are reacting this way because we are in pain, right along with the families who suffered loss directly. It’s not the same pain, but it still hurts. This man took something from all of us on Friday, and as a people we are trying to process the pain. And the blaming of guns, or God, or taking prayer out of school, or anything else–more than anything else–is a collective cry from people to make the pain stop.

We don’t care how at this point. We just want these killings to stop. We want our collective pain to stop. We want to see sanity restored.

I’ve been thinking about this ever since the news broke. There are other peripheral discussions going on, but probably the biggest debate now raging is over the issue of gun control. Literally within minutes of the news breaking, people on Facebook began talking–nay, arguing–about gun control. Proponents of gun control have taken this event as proof positive of their point, while gun enthusiasts insist that their guns are the only things protecting them from madmen who will get guns regardless of the laws in place.

For me–at the risk of offending some, I think this is actually a side issue. Loose gun control laws are just something that is easy to blame right now. The truth is, these killings are symptoms of a deeper problem, one that won’t go away because we restricted gun use.

Now, I’m not a gun owner, nor a gun enthusiast. I’ve never fired a weapon, and I don’t know how. And I live in a town near where yet another mass shooting took place this year, the theater shooting in Aurora. If there’s anyone who would be a candidate to support gun control, it is I. But while I can certainly see the merit in regulating certain military-grade weapons (no one needs a semi-automatic to protect themselves under the Second Amendment), I also understand that putting stricter regulations or bans in place won’t stop criminals from getting guns, or madmen from committing evil. Just looking at cause and effect, the only thing I see such laws doing is to make it harder for good people to defend themselves against bad people.

Amid all the coverage of the Connecticut shooting, one story that went virtually unreported was that on the exact same day in China, another madman slashed 22 children with a knife in front of an elementary school. So much for the argument that regulating guns will stop madmen from killing people.

My point is not to stand for or against gun regulation; it’s to say that I don’t think that’s the biggest question we should be asking right now. I’m convinced that the guy who did this would not have been deterred by gun bans; he would have found a way to do his deed either by going around the laws or finding a different weapon. Maybe he would have been less successful, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he did what he did. Few things are stronger than human will.

To me, the bigger question is–why are such events happening in our culture more and more? We actually had less violence in days past, when guns were even easier to obtain than they are now. I’m not saying tighter regulations on guns wouldn’t help the situation today, but it is only a band-aid on an open wound. It does nothing to address the deeper issues in our culture that point to why this kind of thing is happening in the first place.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe this stuff is happening as a result of violent games and movies, and it’s not happening because guns are too easy to get. The elephant in the room that almost no one seems to be acknowledging, is the darkness and violence that exists within each of us. The truth is, we are all capable of doing evil; the thing that restrains us is our moral compass–and as a society, we have allowed that compass to fall into disrepair over time.

We are now two to three generations deep into a civilization that has adopted the belief that right and wrong are relative, based on the need and desire of the moment. It is more than just the issue of whether or not children can pray in school. We have also stopped teaching our children such basic principles as citizenship and personal responsibility. Those ideals are still present (which is why we are not yet in utter chaos and anarchy), but they are definitely eroding. We are raising children without discipline, children who grow up believing that the world owes them something, rather than the other way around. And as a culture, we’re now starting to pay the price for these choices. Those children are now growing up to be adults with that same lack of discipline, responsibility, or understanding of cause and effect. It doesn’t always manifest in a mass killing (in fact, it rarely does), but it can manifest in ways like one teenager shooting another dead in an argument about a boyfriend or girlfriend, or some other such nonsense that we’ve all heard about or even experienced.

What I’m saying is that I believe violence in general is increasing in our culture because our moral code now puts fewer restraints on the darkness that exists in all of us. When pressure is applied (a bad economy, just to give one example), violence sometimes becomes a natural outflow. When you add mental illness to the mix (whether caused by heredity or family dysfunction), you have an even more dangerous situation.

Does this explain why this man did what he did? Not necessarily–every situation is different. But I do believe it explains why violence and suffering are on the rise in our civilization in general–and no amount of gun control will cure that.

What would cure it? Admitting that our flexible, postmodern, no-absolute moral compass is not working, and choosing to live another way. Choosing to start teaching our children once again that right is right and wrong is wrong, and that actions have consequences. Remembering that as a member of our community and society, we have a responsibility to one another, and imparting that sense of responsibility to our children. When one person at a time begins to make positive choices like this–these are the things that help to turn the tide of an eroding civilization, not more laws in and of themselves. In fact, the more people will do this, the fewer laws we’ll actually need. It’s like I’ve said in earlier posts–the trade-off for smaller government is that people actually govern themselves.

It’s not a quick fix. There is no quick fix here–gun control included. It took several generations to get to this point, and it would take several generations to reverse it, even if we started right now. But if we don’t start, I fear it is not going to get better, but only worse.

There can be no denying that this horrific event should be a wake-up call, along with the other events of mass violence our nation has experienced this year. But if we’re going to make the most of this wake-up call, I honestly believe we need to recognize that this isn’t something that can be fixed by tighter regulations alone. In my view, these are symptoms of a bigger problem, one that began in the hearts of people, and one that can only be resolved by changing the hearts of people. Only when hearts are turned will this trend begin to be reversed.

May God turn our hearts, and heal the wounds.