Senseless!

The mass shootings on the Virginia Tech University campus (Monday, April 16,2007) that claimed over 30 lives and injured several others is senseless! Shock, awe, confusion, chaos, fear, worry, anxiety, profound grief, emotional numbing, all come to mind as the story has started to unfold. This tragedy is now being called the worst shooting in U.S. history.

Both houses of Congress observed moments of silence Monday and they were joined by the President in calls for the nation to pray on behalf of the students, faculty, staff and families connected to VTU. As the parent of a college student in another state I am numb. Words cannot express the anguish in my heart for the families of the victims and their fellow students.

I know this will not sit well with my NRA card-carrying, gun-owning and hunting friends (and those I know are very mature and responsible gun owners), but it needs to be said. Once again young lives have been taken by someone pointing and firing a gun. Yes, guns kill people. The old line, "guns don't kill, people kill", just won't work on this one. Do the math. Had there been stricter access to guns the shooter may have not a been able to carry out his dispicable and heinous act using a gun. No, I'm not advocating doing away with the Second Amendment right. But I am saying it's time we had an honest discussion and debate about making the purchase of any type of gun more difficult. We make kids take a test and attend driver's ed courses to obtain a license to drive. Why wouldn't we be just as serious about purchasing a gun? Will it stop the madness? No! But it will make it harder for guns to be used to harm innocent people.

Bottomline regardless of where you stand on the gun issue----the victims' families, the Virginia Tech family, and the survivors need our prayers. For those who know Christ, the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans offer the only thing I can hold onto in times of senseless death and tragedy:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 NIV)

God is not an abandoning God, and I pray His presence will be more real than ever before to everyone connected with this horrific event. Today we are all Hokies and we mourn with our brothers and sisters in Blacksburg!