10.02.2015

In Evil's Path - What Should One Do?

  • Acknowledge the reality of evil. Shooters may additionally be depressed, mentally ill, et cetera; but there is evil in the world, there are evil people, and evil people will do evil things. In history - Hitler (his just end in the decade of my birth). Today: ISIS. The mass shooters who are apparently Nihilistic in their worldview. There is a character from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, a dark lord named Darth Nihilus was a reference to the Nihilism ideology as he devoured entire planets and did not care for living things at all.
  • Know that we live in a time when the days are evil and it is not likely to improve.
  • About gun control:
    • We live in a nation where 270 million firearms are possessed by civilians
    • Postulate #1: In the US, citizens have a right to own a gun
    • Postulate #2: Guns have a legitimate use including sport shooting, hunting and self defense 
    • Postulate #3: There is a place for legitimate vetting of potential gun buyers
    • Postulate #4: No mentally ill person should be issued a gun
    • Postulate #5: While the toll of gun violence is high, guns used in self defense have saved lives as well.
    • Postulate #6: It is utopian to think that 270,000,000 guns could be removed from the hands of the citizenry 
  • There is something about our society that is spawning young monsters. What to blame?
    • Violence in media including video games? 
    • The use of prescription and illegal drugs?
    • The moral relativism that pervades our society? (How few children are taught the 10 commandments today?!)
    • The worldview that man is of little consequence
  • What solutions do I offer?
    • Frankly I don't think demonizing the NRA (a favorite Obama target) is helpful
    • We need to understand that there are soft targets that attract evil mad men
    • A good man with a gun in the right place will deter evil men
    • See postulates # 3 and # 4 above
  • What can any one individual offer:
    • Be a true follower of Christ
    • Resist evil
    • Support law enforcement (Romans 13:1-6)
    • Expose falsehood (false worldviews) which lead to hopelessness
    • Pray for our communties

9 comments:

  1. The killer: The guy did this strictly for satanic purposes. He did it to become a god in hell. He wants to be evil. That is his goal, to serve Satan,

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  2. The killer wrote that he would be "welcomed in Hell and embraced by the devil."

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  3. On Gun Free Zones:

    When this objection to gun-free zones is raised, gun-controllers typically respond that the answer to gun violence cannot be "more guns." But when aggressors are the only ones with guns, what would be wrong with more guns if they were in the right hands? Eliminating gun-free zones would in effect put guns in the hands of the innocent at the scene of the attack. As it now stands, the only people with guns are the killers and police, who may be miles away. ... The connection between means and end is clear. If would-be mass killers suspected they would meet resistance early on, they might be deterred from launching their attack. But even if not, the chances of minimizing an attack would obviously be greater if some of the gunman's intended victims were armed.

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  4. On number of firearms: Why data on guns can't be trusted

    The Umpqua Community College shooting has raised questions about the number of guns in the U.S. But data on this subject are unreliable.

    Here's why:

    U.S. law explicitly prohibits law enforcement agencies from collecting or releasing statistics that could provide an accurate picture of gun ownership. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is barred from releasing gun traces to the public and can't require gun dealers to turn over inventories. The FBI, which is in charge of federal background checks, is required to destroy purchaser records within 24 hours.

    Gun-rights groups oppose collecting such data, raising the concern that it could be used to create a gun registry and that the government eventually could use that to seize guns from private citizens.

    The commonly cited data come from the Congressional Research Service, which says there were an estimated 310 million privately owned firearms in 2012. That statistic is based on estimates that originate from a 1994 survey done by the National Institute of Justice.

    The ATF and Commerce departments release data on gun manufacturing and exports. But that doesn't provide a complete picture.

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  5. It's worth noting that the college wasn't specifically a gun-free zone; Oregon law protects the rights of carry permit holders this way. However, I'd guess it was effectively no carry since students are mostly under 21 or unable to afford the permit (pistol plus training plus permit application costs), and presumably since professors and other employees are prohibited from carrying, that means it is effectively a no carry zone.

    Not an easy problem, my favored solution is to pay more attention to mental illness, from which the perp appears to have suffered. But that said, it's hard to figure out who's actually going to be violent.

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