Do. or not do. there is no try.

 

Romans 7:15-20

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 

17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a]   For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

The Man who Killed Liberty Valance...

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Certainly this week has again brought home how quickly violence, related mental illness, and carnage collide.  In Oregon, a young man loaded up with guns and bullets, brought horror and death to a small college community.

Not much else needs to be said about this horror, since the media are sucking this massacre to the bone.

This sentence will surely seem unrelated, but has anyone seen “The Man who Shot Liberty Valance”?

 

Do you remember John Wayne in the role of Tom Doniphon and Jimmy Stewart in the role of Ransom Stoddard?  Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance?

Do you recall the conflict of justice through the law and justice through immediate confrontation of evil and good?

This is an excellent movie, filmed in 1962, directed by John Ford.

In an article by Michael Shermer quoting Steven Pinker cites this as: 

“…the (fictional town of) Shinbone embodies any small community in transition from an informal (law code/cowboy code) to a formal moral code and system of justice.  When everyone takes the law into their own hands there is no law…”

Basically, what I want to say is that this tragedy in Oregon (Sandy Hood, Columbine…) is not a gun issue.  It is a moral issue. The idea of more gun control laws, and more and more will not be the solution.

The solution is in the enforcement of moral right vs. wrong in the home by the parent(s), and then reinforced in churches and schools. Only then will mental illness, sociopathic behavior, and obsessive devotion to broken ideology  be recognized early and intervention taken. 

If that doesn’t happen, guns can be sucked up by a big vacuum and yet nothing will change. 

Absolutely nothing.

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Question:  If I were trained is in firearms, had a gun, and was confronted by such a person, would I shoot to kill.  Yes. 

Courage Begins Here

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Quick!  You can do it!

James heard Dan’s voice.  He trusted his friend and followed him blindly.  Whatever Dan said was the law.

Dan shifted from foot to foot, his breath coming out quickly.

  “Come on!  We gotta go!  Just do it!”  Dan watched as the backs of the pack of boys disappeared around the corner.

Source: Allen West Republic

James hesitated.  He heard Dan hiss, “Coward!”

James stared up into Dan’s eyes.  Without breaking contact or even blinking, James took the loosened edge of the band aid.

Rip!

We all been there.