four-minute friday: gun control

Go. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." That trite answer to heart-wrenching situations like the one that just unfolded on a college campus in Illinois, is disturbing to me.

Something is going on with young people today, something no one really seems to understand---myself included. Something that drives them to take a gun and shoot their classmates. Something that makes them feel so hopeless, so aimless, so hurting, that they resort to violence.

Not violence for violence sake, I don't believe. Not just to be mean or cruel. But violence because, for some reason, it's the only thing they can think to do with all the hurt they carry inside.

It breaks my heart.

The gun issue needs to be addressed. Absolutely. But more than that, the hurting-youth issue needs to be addressed. We need to find some way to reach these kids, to let them know there is a hope. That even if they've hit bottom, they are not alone. That they are seen, known, loved.

How? I have no idea. But we need to do something. Any ideas?

It's true. Guns don't kill people. But hurting hearts do.

Done.