Fresno pastor: Gun culture is not backed by Scripture, but is heart-wrenchingly American
My bedroom is pitch dark, my heart is racing, my breathing is rapid as though I’ve just run a 5K race, and my T-shirt is soaked with sweat. Once again, I am bolt upright in bed, having had another nightmare about gun violence breaking out in the cathedral.
Since Uvalde, I have had three of these nightmares. The rash of gun violence and mass shootings in the United States is a public health crisis. It has been for a long time, for decades. It is evil. The cost for the economy is incalculable. The toll in human life and suffering for the victims, their families, friends, and the first responders is abominable. The impact on individual and collective mental health is … well, words fail me.
I am writing this opinion piece following the announcement that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators had reached an agreement on a nominal form of gun safety legislation. While I am grateful that something has been done, it is not enough. It is not nearly enough.
Since Jan. 1, there have been 250 mass shootings in this country and the overall impact of gun-related violence and injury is unfathomable. I tried to quantify the number and couldn’t. Mass shootings have occurred in schools, grocery stores, retail malls, restaurants, subways, on public streets, in workplaces and in churches. No sector of our society has been spared this grotesque violence and we are all suffering for it. The mental health toll doesn’t just impact those closest to the gun violence. It spreads, like the contagion it is, throughout the community and the nation. The stress caused by this senseless violence is no respecter of age, gender, ethnicity, creed, or political party. This mental health crisis is felt everywhere.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fresno-pastor-gun-culture-not-120000661.html
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