Does it ever stop? I mean, the absurdities and brutalities of life that so daily flow and seemingly never abate? This most recent, tragic slaughter of school children will likely be trumped (no pun intended) next week by some other act of absurdity, quickly followed by more equally absurd “remedies” offered by those appealing to “common sense.”

One of the obvious solutions to these rampage shootings would be to have some form of armed and trained people on site at schools. Just as we have parents who volunteer for the PTA, as classroom aids, or field trip chaperones, volunteers from retired military or police alone could fill security positions just as easily. An abundance of adults exists to do something out of sheer outrage over these preventable cruelties. Guns at school? Yes, they are unfortunately showing up all too commonly now in the hands of incredibly destructive people. I’d volunteer myself for shifts as would a million other men and women, angry over all this and committed to “enough is enough.” But many of those disconnected from reality and common sense are obstructively flapping and fluttering in response to anything this real.

Their reasoned arguments are based upon the question, “What would happen if those bearing arms at a school were overpowered and their guns fell into the hands of the wrong people?” Indeed. By this astoundingly astute principle of logic, we should disarm the entire Secret Service, our police force, and all others handling weapons for preventative services. Apparently, you get rid of violence by removing those capable of terminating it at the site in question. Don’t you just love this kind of reasoning?

Okay, how about this? Let’s send a serious form home to the parents of all students wherein we ascertain their children’s access to guns. Too insane? I don’t think so. We’re already capable of identifying most gun owners in the United States. Properly done, such a process could be helpful in a number of ways, not the least of which is soberly reminding parents of their major responsibility to everyone to assess their children’s actions and risk factors. I am equally tired of hearing how “badly” the parents of these killer-kids feel about what they did. Come on, you saw nothing to alarm you about their mental health or what they were feeding their minds on? I seem to remember Jesus Himself warning people who would harm children:

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. —Matthew 18:6

We can, indeed, raise the age to acquire guns. We can do greater background checks. We can further regulate how and where firearms are sold. We can do all of these “reasonable” things. However, I do not believe it will change much but add more bureaucratic details.

Our nation’s seemingly endless passion for more and more violence in movies and video games is undoubtedly feeding sick people with delusions of violent action for personal significance. Meanwhile, our dependence on smart phones, screens, and social media is stunting young people’s social and emotional development. The consequence is an entire generation with more depression, anxiety, and isolation than ever before who lack the interpersonal skills to navigate the difficult terrain of adolescence and may not see healthy alternatives to emulating the violence they see on screen.

We need a national mobilization addressing this cultural disease—a movement beginning in our homes and schools and coming out of Hollywood and the video-game industry. We need an even greater cry for sanity than for gun control at the headwaters of our cultural entertainment industries. Violence isn’t cool, fool.

My thinly veiled anger stems from frustration over the lives already senselessly lost and those to come. People’s foolishness is tacitly responsible for kids’ lives and they need to be called out for it. Am I being too hard? I don’t think so… Those young victims could just as easily belong to me or you. To top it all off, many advocating this cretin-like logic are national leaders running our nation. This sobering fact explains a lot.

I believe in the Second Amendment, but get real; our rifles can’t withstand tanks, rockets, helicopters, or all the rest of the war machine. Let’s keep the guns, but if we can’t properly guard them, we have already lost the nation we so passionately want to preserve. True common sense demands a BOTTOM LINE to more of this travesty.