Unfortunately, America continues to repeat its idiotic insanity and love of weaponry. Today, a 28-year-old woman reportedly shot and killed 3 students and 3 adults at The Covenant school in Nashville, Tennessee. During the afternoon’s wanning hours, the NRA mass shooting playbook was pulled from the rolodex. The instructions read accordingly.

  • Acknowledge the sadness.
  • Tweet your prayers and love to those impacted.
  • Hold a moment of silence, preferably in public as it looks humble.
  • Say it’s too soon to discuss meaningful gun law changes while the nation heals.
  • Do nothing.

I wrote about that specific playbook in 2017. In the five or so years since not much has changed. My 2017 post noted why nothing has been done. In the 2016 election, the National Rifle Association spent a stupendous $54.4 million, almost all of it in “independent expenditures,” for or against a candidate but not in direct campaign contribution. The money went almost entirely on Republicans to a degree that almost appeared like a misprint (but it wasn’t): Democrats received only $265.

Representative Andy Ogles represents the Nashville district where a school shooting happened this morning (March 27, 2023). He offered his “thoughts and prayers” to families of the victims. However, in 2021, he posted a Christmas message with a photo of his family holding guns. “My family and I are devastated by the tragedy that took place at The Covenant School in Nashville this morning,” he wrote. “We are sending our thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.”

A coworker stated guns are a God-given right. Personally, I believe God chides everyone to reread the Constitution. The Constitution’s Preamble states, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Nowhere in the Constitution is the word ‘God-given.’ We must remind ourselves that Jesus denounced violence and taught us to turn away from weapons. In fact, the Gospel of Luke (22:49-51) describes Jesus healing a person after one of the followers cut his right ear off via sword.

God states that after we’re done staking whoever we decide to whitewash The Covenant shooting to a cross, we need to take that same passion and convict ourselves. We are just as responsible for every dead person, from Columbine to the current. We can’t stake the pain upon one group of individuals. If we hold them accountable, we must hold ourselves responsible. The same standard of laws that allowed an 18-year-old to buy several assault weapons are the same ones that allowed one from Illinois to obtain an assault weapon and carry it in a Wisconsin riot. Look at how that turned out.

Last, but not least. The grim ritual of offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims doesn’t work well for God anymore. On an organizational level, most denominations have made statements against gun violence — and sometimes, against guns themselves — especially after mass shootings. However, that is nothing more than a Sunday homily.

God knows we’re pretty stupid. Sure enough, we prove it every day. I am fairly convinced that by the time the NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament starts this coming weekend, everyone will have moved on. Like Buddha stated, nothing is permanent, except for those who perished.