Are We At The Tipping Point

Weariness has seeped into the darkest recesses of my bones because of all the miscreants who go on a rampage killing innocent people and often themselves in the process. Plus every day on average 50 families are routinely plunged into grief for those murdered in America.

The world perceives us as a violent nation. That disheartens and depresses me. And it will only get worse.

How many more are teetering on the precipice of violence as you read this. There have been nearly 70 mass killers on the rampage in recent years, killing and maiming hundreds. Here is a recent partial list: Virginia, Tech, 32; Sandy Hook El, 26; Killen, TX,23; San Ysidro, 21; Austin, TX , 18; Edmond, OK,14; Ft. Hood, 13; Binghampton, NY,13; Columbine high school, 13; Wilkes Barre, 13; Washington Navy Yard, 12; Aurora, CO; 12 killed 50 wounded, AME Church 9; Maine 5 shot 2 killed; Tennessee 5 Marines dead; Atlanta 4, Louisiana 3 dead nine wounded.

I have grown so discouraged by the almost daily TV images of another group of law enforcement officers and leading citizens who stand and try to explain the latest incident. More tears, more grieving, more disbelief, more soul searching.

I say it without equivocation, "Guns kill people."People use guns to kill people. No one can deny that. I know people kill with other instruments of death. But guns are involved in so many deaths it must be stated. I know that criminals will always have ways to get guns.

I wish every hand gun, assault rifle, automatic gun, and now sawed off shotguns, not used by law enforcement and military units could be delivered by train and methodically thrown into huge blast furnaces at the steel works in Gary, Indiana, melted and used for productive positive products. I wish for the magical power to extricate all guns from the hands of crooks, thugs, outlaws and melt them. I wish that no guns except those used by military and law enforcement agencies could be produced or imported or sold for the next 150 years. I wish all ammunition for all of those guns could be delivered to military arsenals and disposed of and no ammunition could be produced, imported or sold for the next 150 years. Anyone caught with a gun will be jailed forever. No questions asked. No due process.

We live in a society;A group of people who decided we want to live together in a society and then gave approval to be governed in judicious ways for the benefit of the whole.

I believe that to make our nation safer individuals must forgo or give up some of their perceived rights for the benefit of the group. And one of those rights is the current perception on the right to bear arms. I do not believe citizens have the right or need to own guns.

The second amendment has been so ruptured and misinterpreted that everyone has been given the right to own a gun of any size or purpose. It originally spoke to government not to individuals. Subsequent misguided Supreme Court Decisions and others have diluted the meaning to insure that every person, legal or otherwise, sane or insane, responsible or irresponsible or with a criminal record longer than the Interstate System can now pack a firearm. A responsible rendering of the second amendment will reveal that the purpose to keep and bear arms was to protect the state from foreign and domestic enemies using the Minutemen and local militia. That was a time of great insecurity for the nation to endure and there was a dearth of standing military units with weapons. That is not the case today.

Spare me the diatribe that a gun is needed to prevent a government takeover. Tell me how you would fare against regiments of trained military men with tanks, airplanes, drones, missiles, artillery, sophisticated weaponry employed by Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army personnel.

We stand at the end of the continuum at the tipping point, where a minority of people control the thinking of the nation so that we now have the mindset that everyone should be permitted to carry a gun at work; on school campuses; in churches; in public everywhere with a permit. I fear we are dissolving into another "Somalia-like" society where there is no law, no protection by law and everyone is subject to death every day in every way. The Old West as depicted in movies. Our law enforcement agencies are fighting an unwinnable war against criminals, thugs, killers, drug dealers and users and thieves all who carry and own multiple guns.

Darwin was right about the laws of nature. Only the strong survive. And in America today strong means possessing, controlling and using guns against normal citizens. God help us from ourselves. A Christian nation we are not.