Gun violence, and violent crimes in general, have been reported at surprising rates in the United States in recent years; a fact we are all too well aware of by now. Anyone that knows me knows that I will be among the last to support government regulation of firearms but that is not my point today.
My point is that I firmly believe the cause of all these devastating acts is the value our society places on human life is all but nonexistent. The lack of premium we place on the lives of others, combined with the way the media sensationalizes these heinous crimes seems like it has never been greater.
Many of us at Oklahoma Christian University have, I hope, seen the video put out last week called “Love and Find Hope.” This video is a perfect summarization of how I feel toward these events.
The video might make you tear up or make you angry at all of the people who stole our loved ones’ lives or make you question how someone could ever commit a crime like that. It’s a two-and-a-half-minute YouTube video and I promise it will be worth your while to watch.
Just in the past several years alone there have been multiple shootings at schools or public locations and every single one of them has been politicized. They have been used as games between news outlets to see who can get the most gut-wrenching and unsettling coverage. Families of victims and loved ones haven’t been given any privacy or been allowed to grieve in peace because the entire country is falling out of their seats to know what happened and what is going to be done about it.
I don’t know about you but if one of my loved ones had been involved in an incident like any of these, the last thing I would want is the president or some other political figure coming to my town and telling me, “If gun laws were just a little bit stricter, your loved one would be here today.”
We place a higher value on the entertainment and attention derived from these tragic events than we do mourning and praying for those affected. When did lost human lives ever become less important than a conversation topic?
News will always be important. We need it in order to be informed so we can make educated decisions. We need it so we know what is going on internationally. We even need it to report horrible incidents like these. However, we do not need the news to make pawns out of families of children whose lives have been stolen from them.
There have been two school-related shootings this week. Both cases involved students as the shooter. They have both made national news and will surely continue to be broadcasted throughout their trials. I encourage you to watch them with the families affected in mind instead of their media sensation.
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