A Prayer

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 3:51pm

By Max Lucado, sorry if it's just a paste, but wtf can I add? Well I can add that it's fucking crazy to live in a country where it's more difficult to adopt a pet than it is to buy a gun. Would it be too much to ask that it be as hard as buying a car? Or how about allowing only one gun a month to be bought, to reduce illegal dealing? Or should we restrict the sale of high-capacity magazines? And what kind of back ground checks? Anyone right out of the looney bin?

Dear Jesus,

It's a good thing you were born at night. This world sure seems dark. I have a good eye for silver linings. But they seem dimmer lately.

These killings, Lord. These children, Lord. Innocence violated. Raw evil demonstrated.

The whole world seems on edge. Trigger-happy. Ticked off. We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod's jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty. Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won't you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children

**slamdunc** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 4:08pm

Originally Posted by patfromlogan

By Max Lucado, sorry if it's just a paste, but wtf can I add? Well I can add that it's fucking crazy to live in a country where it's more difficult to adopt a pet than it is to buy a gun. Would it be too much to ask that it be as hard as buying a car? Or how about allowing only one gun a month to be bought, to reduce illegal dealing? Or should we restrict the sale of high-capacity magazines? And what kind of back ground checks? Anyone right out of the looney bin?

It is fairly easy to buy a gun even through a legal, legitimate firearms dealer. In this, the most recent act of terrorism and / or insanity, the shooter stole the weapons from his mother / victim.

We can limit the quantity of firearms someone can purchase within a specified period of time; there is always a way to get something if you want it bad enough. The same goes for high-capacity magazines (supply vs demand).

All FFL dealers run a database check on potential purchasers. This includes criminal histories, orders of protection (domestic violence), to determine if a person has been an inpatient at a mental health facility or has been determined to be mentally retarded. No amount of safeguards will weed out all of the nut-jobs trying to arm themselves. The world is a crazy place; knowing this, I still cannot accept that these acts of violence are just part of life.

**TheMightyMcClaw** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 4:59pm

Didn't Jesus promise to put an end to wickedness and sin?
What a fucking slowpoke.

**sweats** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 5:00pm

Violence has been with us always and will forever be.

We human beings have a tremendous capacity and ingenuity for harm. If we want to destroy badly enough, we will find a way. All of us have a dark part of ourselves. Freud called it Thanatos. The death force. Some cannot or will not contain it.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 5:04pm

Terrible tragedy.

Terrible analogies.

**RandomTriangle** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 5:17pm

You don't need a gun to hurt children if you really want to.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2...ck-school.html

im not saying that incident was AS bad, just saying where there is a will there is a way

**sweats** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 5:37pm

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/s...h/index_1.html

1927, a lunatic kills schoolchildren. Unfortunately, there is nothing new under the sun.

**Dickhead** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 6:31pm

I can't imagine what the parents of those children are going through. This is a horrible tragedy.
And unfortunately, people are going to use this to try to push gun control. I'd much rather have teachers being able to carry concealed. Some evil lunatic deadset on hurting innocent children isn't going to worry about legally obtaining weapons if he's planning do something as despicable as what happened yesterday. But if teachers were encouraged to carry concealed weapons, these kinds of tragedies could be avoided, or at least minimized. That or armed security guards, but I'm sure that most schools don't have the budget for this.

**Devil** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 9:12pm

Like most people, it kills me to see this happen to children. As protective as I am of my gun rights I would give them up in an instant if I honestly believed it would make my kids safer. When it comes to my family I put my money where my mouth is and I don't put my pride or personal welfare above them. Ever.

I sent more money to the NRA yesterday. That's how I feel about that.

**Vieux Normand** · Posted On: 12/15/2012 9:21pm

Are children the world over abused, tortured and killed with rapid-fire regularity all over the world? Yes.

Is this unusual, given that the young of most living species never see adulthood? No.

Our expectations, in the industrialized world, are out of sync with long-established norms outside of it.

I'm not saying this to be either flippant or disrespectful. I'm just suggesting that the world has never been a nice place for younglings of any kind. Not ever.