Another Raging Fire

Another house is on fire in our nation. Similar to the way we have focused upon racism and inequality, and, car safety reform 25 years ago, we must rush to the aid of this out of control blaze in our neighborhoods.

The blazing fire raging in our communities is anger and violence by guns.

We must do something about this as it increases dramatically. All of these kind of things should matter all the time to all of us nationally:

Racism & Inequality

Opioid Crisis

Broken Families & Parenting

However, anger and violence by guns isn’t going away. It is only rising in Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City lately - shootings and murder in NYC are up 64% and 79% from a year ago May 2019.

Spiritual Awakening & Natural Solutions Like every other of these issues, this is foremost a spiritual heart problem. But, we cannot overlook the natural need for effective gun and weapon and crime legislation.

We cannot legislate righteousness. The solution to all that is going on in our world is a spiritual Awakening. But, we must also address the natural need for more consistent and effective gun and weapon legislation. That may include the following:

Mental Health Restraining Orders

Illegal Sale Oversight, Penalties, and Immunity Reform

Home Gun & Weapon Education

Gag Law Amendments

Smart Gun Manufacturing (i.e. car safety standards)

Increased Research Funding

Armed Staffing vs. Right To Campus Carry

These are only a few of the ongoing conversations regarding this volatile issue of government oversight and freedom of Second Amendment rights. But we all agree, even in the chaos of rising gun violence, something needs to be done.

This weekend Chicago saw its highest number of gun violence victims in a weekend in 2020 with 104 people shot from Friday evening to Monday morning - 14 fatally shot and 5 of those killed were minors. (Chicago Sun-Times )

So, it is apparent that something must be done before the next catastrophic shooting.

To The Rescue

Matthew 15 and Proverbs 4 define all of the issues of life that come out of the heart - evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false witness, and blasphemy. And these chapters emphasize the importance of guarding the heart. This is first and foremost a heart issue with humanity. We need a spiritual Awakening of the heart.

But we must also work naturally at how to improve best arms practices. Nobody wants to see another death by gun violence in our cities or at our schools. So more must be done in the realm of legislation without infringing upon 2nd Amendment rights. Similar to the work that was done with car safety reform 25 years ago that resulted in massive reforms and improved statistics and results.

Putting Out The Blazing Fire

We must bring racism & inequality, the opioid drug abuse, broken families, and anger/violence by gun to the power of the Cross and deal with the heart of man. There is a blazing fire in our neighborhood and we need to rush to the aid of this issue or there will be continued catastrophic events in the future.

That requires we must both guard our hearts and improve effective arms legislation. More to come on this important topic next week.