Our Children Are Not the Price of Freedom
Two pieces for you today — the first is my thoughts on Wednesday’s school shooting in Minneapolis, and the second is writer and minister Danté Stewart’s thoughts on the same. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
By Sharon McMahon
My dad was a Marine who did two tours in Vietnam. He dropped out of high school, schlepped through jungles, lost 40 pounds from dysentery, and tasted the tang of his best friend’s blood as he was blown to oblivion by a landmine.
When he came home, his face looked hard. His dreams — dreams that replayed what he had seen in Vietnam with a frightening realism — plagued him for the rest of his days.
Later, his pickup truck was adorned with “Vietnam Veteran” license plates and a bumper sticker that said, “My boss is a Jewish carpenter,” an allusion to his religious faith. Step into his garage, one that was filled with power tools, cigarette smoke, and a decrepit recliner occupied by a black labrador retriever, and you’d see a scarlet and gold Semper Fi sticker.
Semper Fidelis, the motto of the Marine Corps. Always faithful. He was proud of his service to his country, and ultimately gave his life for it after becoming disabled and dying from a neurological illness caused by Agent Orange exposure. His grandchildren will miss out on listening to his incessant whistling while he worked. I am fortunate that I did not.
My dad was a lifelong Republican voter and a gun owner. He was always faithful. And he would agree: our lack of action on gun violence in the United States is a moral failure. To quote the Book of James: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is a sin.”
And we know the good we ought to do.
In the same way that we ought not subject our children to pornography in schools, we ought not subject them to gun violence.
There are many loud voices claiming to be protecting children from a host of social issues — gender ideology in schools, biological men in women’s bathrooms, drag queen story times, irreversible medical procedures for trans youth.
But guns? Those we aren’t allowed to talk about unless it’s a discussion about having more of them in more places. Lawmakers will send out greeting cards showing their family holding up their rifles in front of the Christmas tree. No longer does it seem that guns are to be respected as the potentially dangerous tools that they are. They’ve become photoshoot props and identity markers, with far too many people veering dangerously into the realm of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, whispering, “My preciousssss” as they gaze lovingly at what makes them feel truly powerful. Their gun.
We can’t read a picture book about two male penguins who adopt a chick (a true story), but we will drill five year olds on what to do if someone puts a bullet in their teacher (also, sadly, a true story).
It’s time to set aside the tired “it’s not guns, it’s mental health issues” argument. A large-scale survey in The Lancet across 29 nations found that half of the world’s population will experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime. Half.
Half of a nation’s population experiencing a mental health disorder at some juncture just doesn’t translate into mass shootings in other countries. What’s different about America?