It is a sad fact of life that in America the frequency of mass shootings is increasing to the point that hardly any time goes by without a news alert that innocent Americans are gunned down where they work, play, and go to school. Despite the obvious reason for the mass shooting are the direct result of more guns in the hands of more Americans, gun fanatics and evangelical Christians have an answer for why the shootings occur and how they can be reduced if not stopped altogether. It never dawns on the gun advocates or religious fanatics that taking guns off the street, legal or otherwise, will reduce the death and devastation to families suffering the effects of gun violence, but then again their focus is not stopping violence as much as promoting their own twisted ideology. Whether it is the National Rifle Association, Christian Right, or insecure impotent men, they have all had absurd revelations about why gun violence is so prevalent and how to stop it. Another mass shooting on Thursday debunked their most prized and oft-repeated solutions for stopping innocent Americans from being gunned down.
The mass shooting on the campus of Seattle Pacific University that claimed the life of one man and injured three other innocent students near downtown Seattle when a gun fanatic walked onto the campus and indiscriminately gunned down four students exposed a favorite claim by both the National Rifle Association and religious right as completely bogus. First, if the crazed gunman did not have firearms at his disposal, the victims would not have been gunned down and neither the NRA or evangelical extremists can deny that simple fact. It is a simple premise even a half-wit evangelical or gun fanatic cannot possibly deny; no guns, no mass shooting. However, there were guns and there was a mass shooting and the only reason there were not more victims was not because a good guy with a gun stopped the bad guy with a gun, or as Christian fanatics are wont to claim because god was not invited to oversee government mandated school prayers or forced indoctrination of students with bible dogmata.
First, the bad guy with a firearm that gunned down four innocent students was stopped by a good guy with pepper spray; not a gun. Further, because the bad guy with a gun did not have an extended magazine like the NRA and gun maniacs fight desperately to put on the streets, he had to stop and reload giving the security guard the opportunity to pepper spray and wrestle the shooter to the ground preventing even more carnage. Also, the NRA wants every man, woman, and child armed and dangerous, and if that had been the case while the security guard was wrestling the shooter to the ground, there were reports that bystanders first thought there were two shooters and if one of them had been armed and began firing, they likely would have shot and killed not only the good guy with pepper spray subduing the shooter, but other innocent students attempting to flee the malaise.
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Second, directly after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, and since then, there have been posters and articles rhetorically asking god, “why weren’t you at Sandy Hook protecting those innocent little angels,” to which pretend god answers “because I was prohibited from entering by the government when those dirty atheists banned school prayers and daily bible readings.” That argument was absurd before Thursday’s mass shooting, but since the gunman indiscriminately shot down four students at a private Christian university, it is safe to say good old god, hourly Christian prayers, and an abundance of bible readings should have kept the maniac with a gun off campus. It is time for the religious right to stop blaming horrendous loss of life on the lack of their god, bible, or prayers in public schools because if their god was ever due to take up residence in a place of education, it would have been a private Christian university full of Christians praying there was not an active shooter gunning down their classmates. Either god was napping, or the evangelicals’ favorite excuse for mass shooting has been officially debunked.
This is not to minimize the tragedy or devastating loss of life and mayhem inherent anytime a freak with a gun walks in a building and opens fire, but it is to put an end to the bovine excrement excuse that the only reason maniacs with easy access to firearms walk into schools or any other public places to kill innocent victims is because god is prohibited. Everyone knows the religious right takes advantage of any disaster to push god on America whether it is greedy businesses rejecting safety measures, extreme weather events due to climate change, or maniacs with easy access to firearms. The reason mines collapse, super-storms decimate entire states, fertilizer plants explode, and maniacs with guns kill people have nothing to do with god and everything to do with Republicans denying climate change, deregulating industry, and doing the bidding of the National Rifle Association by blocking gun safety regulations.
For the NRA, their persistent and sickening assertion that more good guys with guns will stop bad guys intent on committing mass shooting has been debunked long before a lone security man used pepper spray to subdue the shooter who did not have an extended magazine or clip and had to stop to reload. The maniac that went on a shooting spree in Santa Barbara a couple of weeks ago was confronted by several good guys with guns (law enforcement officers) and still managed to indiscriminately shoot innocent Americans; in that case, the bad guy with a gun stopped the bad guy with a gun with a self-inflicted shot to the head. The NRA’s never-ending claim that more guns in the hands of more Americans is the only solution to mass shootings is debunked and Americans are just as sick and tired of hearing it as they are that god, mandated public school prayers, and forced bible lessons will stop mass shootings in schools.
The NRA and Christian fanatics know precisely what will stop the preponderance of mass shootings that are becoming as typical as the nightly news; end the proliferation of firearms. It is a simple solution, and although it does not elicit religious fervor or incite 2nd Amendment extremists to push for more guns everywhere, it is a very simple solution. However, both the NRA and the religious right need mass shootings to continue unabated because they drive gun sales and NRA memberships, and give the Christians a reason to push god in public schools leading one to wonder just how excited the NRA and Christian Right get at the news another maniac gunned down innocent Americans.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
