View from a Prairie Home by Here Herfindah

I was sitting in church the other Sunday. It was Pentecost. The day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they were told to go out and spread the gospel to everybody. The sermon was especially inspiring. I wish I could have taken notes, but I was sitting in the choir loft, so I just had to rely on my old, shrinking brain to retain the message of the day. 

To spread the gospel. Not just to our friends, but to everybody. Not just people who look and speak like us. The disciples were also given the gift of language on that day. They were able to speak to all present in their native tongues. Very often on Pentecost Sunday, I am given the task of reading Acts 2:1-13 in French. Others will then read it in Spanish, Norwegian and German. Which are the languages our particular community knows. But, of course, there are so many other languages. But, that is not the main point of Pentecost at all. The main point is reaching all people, no matter where they live or what language they speak. They might be black or brown. They might be old or young. They might be LGBTQ. They might be mentally disabled or even mentally ill. But we should break down barriers. And spread a message of love and forgiveness.

But then, sitting amidst the love and friendship of our Lutheran church, I felt a stab of fear. What if a person, unlike us mainly old, all white and middle-class Americans, or maybe just like us, but with a burning hatred for some perceived wrong, would come in and start shooting. It is a free country, after all, and we have the right to carry a gun, even a hidden gun, (although I think a semi-automatic rifle is too big to hide). But, anyway, what if a shooter suddenly appeared and just randomly started shooting. How many of us would die? Some would have time to call 911, but how long would it take for the police to arrive? While he was shooting with this legal semi-automatic weapon, how many of us would be dead before the police could arrive, even if it would only take them five or ten minutes?

What is the purpose of these weapons? Nobody in their right mind would use them for hunting. Who would want to pick that many bullets out of a deer before they could eat it? And why can an 18-year-old purchase such a weapon? He cannot legally drink alcohol, because we think he could become an alcoholic if he did, but he can shoot people, which is, after all, the purpose of such a gun. It is a gun for war. Where the purpose is to shoot as many enemy soldiers as possible before they shoot us. Besides, most 18-year-olds don’t have a properly developed pre-frontal cortex yet. This is the part of the brain that controls impulses, manage emotional reactions and predict the consequences of one’s actions. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for semi-automatic rifles to be available for the above-eighteen crowd. There are plenty of people around with anger issues that cloud their thinking. I think this particular weapon should be reserved for the military. It used to be. When the second amendment to the constitutions was written, no automatic weapons existed. 

I understand the argument that weapons don’t kill people, people do. A weapon does not get up by itself and start shooting. So, the efforts to control what has become a daily tragedy of mass killings has to have multiple facets. I am just a retired foreign-language instructor and no expert on mental illnesses. But as a teacher I was required to report suspected parental abuse. Maybe, we also could require counselors and teachers to report disturbing mental focus on violence? And what about violent video games? And the so-called dark web? And, of course, bullying? There is no doubt that this all can lead to mass shootings given the readily availability of guns. 

Some kind of gun-control is called for together with some restrictions on violent content online.  We are a free society, but we don’t want anarchy, do we? 

Our pastor on Pentecost called for a breaking down of walls. Walls separate us. Let us join together. All of us. Nobody wants to sit in church, go to work or school, or the grocery store and fear death by gunfire. Let us cast aside our great political divide and unite on this one: we all want to live in a society that is safe and free of gun violence.