We Are Missing The Critical Issue

We Are Missing The Critical Issue

As a nation, we have to feel devastated by the massacre in Newtown Connecticut.  But again we are out charging after a small part of the problem and are missing the bigger issue.  Adam Lanza could have used any combination of guns in his horrific crime.  The fact that he got access to a Bushmaster – an assault rifle really doesn’t change much.  What if, he was unable to get his hands on a Bushmaster, but instead bought or stole several Glock pistols?  The Glock is the most popular handgun in America.  You can buy a Glock with a magazine that holds 17 rounds.  Instead of a 12 pound trigger pull, like the traditional revolver, the Glock has a trigger pull slightly more than 5 pounds.  The gun is much lighter and is literally made in a plastic mold as opposed to being assembled from steel. So Adam goes on his massacre of his Mother and 26 other innocent victims using two or three Glock pistols with 17 round magazines.  The end result is the same.  It might have taken him a few more seconds to change either magazines or pistols.

Would the President go after more gun control if he had to get his hands around 200 million privately owned handguns in the United States?  Absolutely not!  Instead we go after assault rifles as unfortunately that was Adam’s choice of weapons.  Now I want guns controlled just like every law abiding citizen in the United States and I do not see any practical purpose for an assault rifle other than it was designed to kill a lot of people quickly.  So what is the real issue here?

We are a violent nation.  Our cities are full of guns and the constant murder rate is a reflection of that fact.  Mayor Bing of the City of Detroit has gone on record many times stating that the police do not have the manpower to stop the killing of Detroit citizens by Detroit citizens.  Guns are everywhere – most of them illegal.  Detroit is recording more than one homicide per day with 358 homicides as of December 2nd.  In 2008, records show that there were 14,180 homicides in the U.S. with 67.5% of them where guns were involved.  According to the latest U.S. Department of Justice survey on violent crime, more than 6,600,000 violent crimes (murder, rape, assault and robbery) are committed in the U.S. each year.

The real issue is, as several noted authors have pointed out, is that we, as a nation, have lost respect for life.  We live with over 4,000 abortions performed each and every day.  Many people just believe that abortion is an extension of birth control.  They are right but it is also murder.  Sadly we have our Newtown massacre about 154 times every day only the victims are a little younger.  In the thinking of today’s modern America, older men and women may become vulnerable to being eliminated through some form of genocide.  Sounds radical but our future health care may make distinctions as to who can live another year or not through the approval or disapproval of necessary surgery.  Many countries like India have brutal and savage ways of eliminating children.  Baby girls that are not wanted are placed in a room to die.  It might take a few days but it will happen.  Hopefully, we will never make this distinction in the United States but nothing any longer is really for sure.  I think that respect for life is tied directly to our moral code today which is rapidly disappearing.  In a recent article I pointed out that today only 1 in 5 persons attend any form of religious services each week.  Many young people in America subscribe to the philosophy that, “if it feels good, do it,” regardless of the consequences.  Without a moral code or any religious beliefs or convictions, our society will, over time, eventually self destruct.  Respect for life must be at the heart of all our actions.

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Written by
Donald Wittmer