a student sitting behind me told one of his friends that he did not think it would bother him to kill someone. A chill ran up my spine. How could anyone think that? Taking one of the teachers aside, I told her what I had overheard. She did not take it seriously and laughed at my concern. I later told the principal. Whether anything was done, I do not know. I still wonder about the life of that young man.
I do know that all of us are exposed to violence. When growing up, my girlfriend, Yvonne, and I often attended the Saturday afternoon matinee at the local theatre in Mt. Vernon. We saw plenty of shoot’em up cowboy movies. However, that brief movie time does not compare to the availability and constantly accessed form of violent entertainment that hand-held video games now provide on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. Does this make them immune to compassion and morality? Does it give them an adrenaline rush that they wish to duplicate in reality just to see how it feels? Commonality of other factors that have been found in the mass murderers includes childhood abuse, bullying, and lack of friends (being an outsider) Please take note of the ages of the attackers in almost all of the killing rampages which have inundated our country. They are young. When a person of any age murders or kills, they feel it is justified. They have made themselves believe that there is no other way to rectify a wrong. The young killers have probably never heard or read Romans 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.” Which makes me reexamine how to discover if someone is good or evil. The Bible tells us in 1 John 3:10 “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” Reiterating what I wrote in 2013, it seems that some people, young or old, may be unaware that they are being swallowed by evil. They do not realize their negative thoughts, actions and lack of self control feed malevolence, forming a darkness on their soul. How do the shooters develop this attitude? They are not born with it. Do you think that a great deal of it may come from parents? People are being asked to learn how to spot or recognize these troubled individuals. Treating the problem but not the cause. I am wondering if training for would-be parents on “how to be a parent” might be beneficial? All other endeavors in life take training. Children go through a series of stages, each one building on the other. A parent’s knowledge of these stages and how to cope with them would give them more understanding of their child. Our government can pass innumerable laws in an attempt to curtail future mass killings. Gun laws, intense background checks may be implemented. Will these new laws be merely bandaids that, again, treat the problem but not the cause? How can we help these young people who have lost their way so early in life, whose minds are easily manipulated with adverse propaganda? How did these individuals come to the conclusion that life is dispensable? Have video games numbed them to any sympathy or understanding of the consequences of their actions? Can parents be taught to recognize when their son or daughter needs help? How can we imbue young people with God’s intentions? “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5: 22-23 [email protected] ©Ann Rains August, 2019
2 Comments
Many of us ask questions about this, but it’s such a Pandora’s box that there are no satisfactory answers - ever! I doubt there’s anyone who can give a simple answer to this topic.
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Hi Vicki,
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