The mass murder of 19 children and 2 adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX shocked and broke hearts of people throughout the country. Just over a week after the mass shooting in a Buffalo, NY supermarket, a young man who recently turned 18 years old purchased two assault rifles and took them into the school where he went on a murderous rampage before being killed by a law enforcement officer. While no words are remotely sufficient to express the pain and horror of this senseless act, President Biden spoke to the nation that evening. I want to lift up two aspects of his address that were especially meaningful to me. The video of his address is posted below.
First, he spoke of the tremendous pain and irreplaceable void experienced by the families who lost a child. His words carried authority and authenticity not because of his position as President but as a parent who lost one young child due to a car accident and one adult child due to a brain tumor. In citing Scripture, he chose Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” This is not some simplistic platitude but the promise of God’s presence in the face of pain and tragedy that truly breaks our hearts and crushes our spirits. The point is not to “get over it” but to believe that God is with us in the pain and horror of the moment as well as in the long process of continuing with the rest of our lives.
Secondly, he called for our nation to take an honest look at the culture of gun violence that has made school shootings and other mass shootings an all too familiar part of life in the USA. He pointed to the fact that such mass shootings are rare in other parts of the world even though all countries deal with similar personal and societal issues that result in mass shootings here. The difference is the widespread availability of guns in general and assault weapons in particular. One specific action that could reduce the scale of the mass shootings is to renew the ban on assault weapons. They serve no purpose except to kill people quickly and in large numbers. As the President said, it is time to translate our pain into action.
Especially for people who claim faith in a God of love and peace, these weapons are totally inconsistent with what we say we believe. If the majority of people who profess faith based on the God of the Bible were to stand up in support of an assault weapons ban, it would pass by a huge margin. It is time to make it clear that Biblical faith is not compatible with owning weapons that have no purpose except to kill human beings made in the image of God. This is not a matter of politics but of basic humanity. Even as we pray for God’s loving presence to be with those families in Uvalde, TX who are brokenhearted and crushed in spirt, we must back up those prayers with action that can help change the prevalence of mass shootings.