Several thoughts from last Friday's news

By Jeff Orvis

It's been five days since many of us first heard the terrible news out of Newtown, CT, where 20 young children and six educators were executed at their school. In the days following this incident, the formerly peaceful New England community has been flooded with hundreds of media clamoring for some sort of fresh angle on this story. This many days later and it's still difficult to turn on a newscast without being reminded again what happened. I suspect an unfortunate fallout of all this might be a surge in the use of Ipods and satellite radio as we try to escape for at least a few minutes.

Almost immediately, the politicians and news-types have suggested that now may be a good time to begin a “conversation” on tighter gun laws in this country. Excuse me! A “conversation” is something you might do over the back fence in the morning with a neighbor. A “conversation” is something we might do with our fellow parishioners after church this Sunday.

No, that conversation ship sailed several years ago. It's time for any one of us who is sickened by what happened on Friday, in fact what may have happened as many as 70 times in our nation's schools since 1994 (according to research presented by David Letterman last night) to shout to the heavens, “We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!”

Growing up, I never had much of an interest in guns or hunting. I had friends who enjoyed going out with an older sibling or a father for a fall hunt and I saw nothing wrong with that. But for a time we lived next door to a family which included an older boy who had definite mental issues. He also had a love of firearms and I think he might still be serving time in the federal system for weapons violations. I still don't know how my sister and I survived those years.

It's time for immediate legislation to ban the manufacture and possession of rapid-fire weapons and ammunition clips that allow a person to fire off many rounds without reloading. The National Rifle Association would have you believe that if you take away those items, it would be a slippery slope and soon “they” would be knocking at your door to confiscate your pheasant and deer guns or that six-shot pistol you might keep by your bed for protection.

Pardon my language, but that's a load of crap!

The next time you have a “conversation” with a sportsman who tries to feed you this line, ask him or her when was the last time they felt the need to go hunting with a semi-automatic rifle or even a pistol with an extended ammunition clip.

The NRA is a powerful group that pours hundreds of thousands of dollars into the bank accounts of legislators on the state and federal level. I suspect much of their financing comes from membership dues and contributions from those who produce guns and ammo. In a tragic turn of events, some retailers and manufacturers have finally come to the realization that the continued manufacture and sale of some of these awful weapons of mass destruction may not be the wisest public relations move going forward.

In a way, I feel sorry for the NRA and its members. I suspect this association is getting a bad rap in the name of this misguided fear of some sort of possible total elimination of firearms in this country. It would seem that a group such as this would have plenty to do with protecting and increasing good hunting grounds as this country is increasingly becoming covered in concrete and development. It could also spend more resources in gun and hunting safety

Hopefully, when the contributions and the membership renewals begin to dwindle, the leadership of this organization might take the hint.

Another comment that has come from this event is a call for more funding for mental health care in this country. It seems like every year, our state government makes some rumblings about changing funding for mental health care. After living in Independence for more than 18 years, where a major mental health institute is located, I can tell you that this causes no small amount of trepidation until cooler heads prevail in Des Moines.

A horrible by-product of our continued involvement in wars in the Middle East are the thousands of mentally wounded soldiers who are returning home. This is certainly not the time to cut funding for mental health issues.

One last note on this subject: Some of my friends on Facebook made some comment that seemed to indicate that they believed that the reason why this happened in Connecticut was because we don't allow God in our schools. At the risk of offending some of those friends, this suggestion is more than a little ludicrous. If you don't believe God was there when those teachers risked their own lives to protect their precious students, you are WRONG! It is my firm belief and hope that those victims were immediately welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven and those left to remember them could take some comfort in that fact.

The memorial service held on Sunday night was so impressive in its diversity. Many religions were represented and the victims came from a variety of religious experiences. I firmly believe that God, in whatever form you might embrace, is at work in that community.

My fear is that if we allowed government-mandated religion in our public schools, the religion provided would be determined by those with the loudest voices in the community. In this era when we are all so concerned with bullying in our schools, what sort of persecution would some students who might not believe as the majority of their classmates be subjected to?

We are in the midst of holiday preparations and celebrations. We all unfortunately tend to get so caught up in the planning, preparing, etc. that it's easy to forget about peace on earth, good will toward all men. The outpouring of support from all over the world for Newtown has been tremendous. Those folks will still need our support and prayers long after the satellite trucks and TV cameras leave town.