Mental Sawdust: Shootings

This evening, we had a family discussion about school shootings. Sadly interesting, terrifyingly interesting, I'm not quite sure what words describe having that conversation with the kids. When I was in 7th grade "the talk" was birds & bees. Now it's whether to charge an attacker or retreat, harden a classroom or run, hide or fight.

One of the boy's teachers commented that she never learned about this in her education classes. Ditto Seminary. Who would have thought we would need to have school and church active shooter trainings? I grew up in the dying gasps of the cold war and the "duck under your desk and kiss your rear end goodbye" drills at school. Now my kids do drills to lock doors, shut off lights, and chunk textbooks at shooters. Sadly, the end result is the same. Asanine.

What amazed me the most, though, was that some teachers are still teaching kids to sit still, be quiet and do what the bad guys says if he gets in the classroom. Seriously? We're neutering our kids so badly that we're teaching them to not fight for their lives! Books, scissors, pencils, kleenex boxes: anything is a weapon. Grab it and attack. Standard army combat doctrine is, when attacked, to try to close with the enemy and destroy. Do it! Get it done! Fight!

This is true in church, too. We can lock doors, but - at least in my church - given that the average member is no longer in world-class Olympic conditioning and generally is in bed shortly after NBC evening coverage starts at 7pm, running just isn't an option. Fight. Attack. Swarm and use whatever is at hand - hymnals, keys, pens, throw, stab, jab, and grab.

I speak from the standpoint of the 6"4" 3(ahem) hundred pound man dressed in a white robe standing front and center at the front of the church. Target? Probably. Do I think about it? Yeah. But I'm not dwelling on it.

Much.

I empathize with teachers. Who would have thought we have to ask ourselves similar questions that street cops, EMTs and service personnel do: what if I don't come home from work today? In a vocation that is about declaring and living out God's mercy, this definitely puts "living under the cross" in a new light.

I realize I'm rambling a bit - sorry. Just thinking a bit on this whole thing and what it means for parents and kids.

I don't know that further gun regulation is the answer. I think blaming all of the violence on mental health care is a cop-out. For the record, I feel that arming teachers or clergy and asking them to be a cop is a non-starter. Here's why.

I have a license to carry in Texas and exercise that right most days, Monday thru Saturday, at work and at home. I'm a damned good shot, on paper, with slow-fire five (or six or ten - depends on capacity) shot groups that are rather impressive. Rapid fire I can make steel plates ring like gongs. I can break Ritz crackers, shatter Necco wafers, and on a really good day hit pennies (yep, pennies) at 7-10 yards. Here's the irony: I probably won't be packing my heater on a Sunday. Why?  If I had to take and make a shot at a bad guy...and for some reason I missed and hit a church member - or, if I hit the bad guy but the bullet went through to hit someone else - I think you would have to put me in a rubber pulpit the rest of my life. I say this of myself. I can't imagine the average 3rd grade teacher or 7th grade coach or high school principal would be much different with their kids and teachers around. With apologies to Sean Connery in Red October, we clergy and teachers aren't trained for combat tactics, Mr. Ryan. There are some things - namely students and parishioners - who don't react well with bullets.

I dont think it's guns. I really don't. It's life. More specifically, our lack of respect for it. Our American culture has lost it's value of life. Infants in the womb have fewer rigbts that the Texas salamander. A homeowner who is in the way of a couple punks who want the big screen TV in the den? Wrong place, wrong time: bye-bye. Insult someone's shoes, skirt, car, team, or musician? Obviously, the best choice is for a beating, cheered on by all the bystanders, recorded by a dozen smarty-phones, uploaded to YouTube or Snapagram or Instachat, and meanwhile no one calls for help. I wanted to get my son some new XBox games for Christmas. Guess what kind of games are most available: 1st person shooter games. Hoyle doesn't cover those kind of rules.

Don't tell me the problem is guns. It's the loss of love, the loss of respect of my neighbor's life and protection of it, the loss of my own self-control, and loss of charity and compassion. It's letting man's evil inclinations to run freely unchecked with the rationale, "So & so did it."

It's a loss of innocence.

For all of us.