The Tragedy in Newtown Ct gives us much to think about

The Tragedy in Newtown Ct gives us much to think about

The murder of young children and teachers in their school is an unjustifiable wrong. School is supposed to be safe place, we have started to weed out the pedophiles and now the mass murderers enter the fray. School is meant to be a safe place let's make it a top priority to make it such.

The Newtown incident has bought on the debate America has to have, how do we regulate guns and gun ownership. To the non American it may seem that the US has a love affair with weaponry, but this view is over simplistic, America has strong historical roots that guarantee the right to bear arms. The English colonial masters denied them this right in the lead up to the American Revolution. It was England's way to to suppress and oppress and there were serious penalties involved if you were caught with a gun in your hands.

The right to bear arms was enshrined in the American Constitution as the second amendment to the document; and fir some in the US this right is a guarantee of their freedom form any potentially corrupt government. But I have a problem here. Lincoln called America one country under God  and the Declaration of Independence talks about the unalienable rights God has given (to America and others) on which America is founded - so if the US is one country under God why do you need the bearing of arms to guarantee your freedom? God is in control, is He not?!

I think that this debate on gun control needs to center on who is in control of the nation that was set up to be one nation under God. If God is in control then gun control is possible without taking away freedoms if God is not in control then why is He not and what has happened to the one country under God?

The second issue raised by Newtown is that of respect. The shooter it seems had his problems and had been bullied. I think from memory the Columbine shooters were of a similar ilk. Bullying is an arrogant lack of respect for others and if we are going to solve these kinds of issues we need not only to control the guns but also to look at the way we treat others.

What may well be the case is that bullying at a secondary level brought about the events that saw children in an elementary school slaughtered. We have to change the values that are exhibited in our school grounds. School culture needs to change so that the brand being worn is not as important as the relationships to other students.

If Adam Lanza had felt more connected and accepted by his peers in the community would he have done what he did? We will never know; but we can say that a one sided debate that only looks at gun control without addressing issues of school peer culture and bullying will not begin to fix the problem.