Imagine you walk into your yearly check up at the doctor’s office. The doctor runs some tests, does a general checkup, and then to your shock announces that you have cancer. What a terrible thing. A sad situation. The doctor then turns to you and says, “well, thoughts and prayers,” and then sends you off as he moves to his next appointment.
“Thoughts and Prayers?” you say to doctor on his way out. “But isn’t there something that could be done? Some treatment that could be tried? Chemo, radiation?”
“Well there are some options, but I’m not really interested in doing any of those. Thoughts and prayers to you though,” says your doctor as he goes on his way.
Now let’s take this scenario and apply it to our current gun violence situation in America. School shootings specifically. They keep occurring time and time again. Kids are afraid to go to school . Teachers are afraid to go to work. What if a gunman walks into the building and starts firing off an assault rifle or some other type of military grade gun that has the capacity to kill large masses of people in a matter of minutes?
“Thoughts and prayers,” we keep getting offered as the children of our nation are being sent off to the slaughterhouse. Gun violence is a cancer to our nation and the politicians and leaders that are refusing to do anything about it are the reason it keeps happening.
Just as there are some practical solutions or at least things to try to beat cancer such as radiation and chemo, there are very practical things we could be doing as a nation to stop these military grade killing machines from getting into the wrong hands. “Commonsense gun laws” is the term. Make it harder for people with criminal backgrounds to get guns, do more thorough background checks, prosecute the parents who are handing over weapons to their children who commit these murders, and ban the sale of assault rifles.
Will chemo and radiation stop every case of cancer? No. Will commonsense gun laws stop every murder? No. But it will absolutely reduce the amount of children and other innocent lives that are taken every year. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. God has given us wonderful brains to use for problem solving and this mass shooting situation in our nation is a no brainer.
It’s time we start holding these politician accountable. When they are more concerned about getting money from the NRA than the safety of our nation’s children, it’s time to vote them out.
