Violence control

Surely the National Rifle Association cannot argue the need for Violence Control. Bringing a halt to the violence this nation has experienced in recent weeks is simply common sense and threatens no one’s constitutional rights.

Violence Control.

Three college shootings in one week. Umpqua Community College, Northern Arizona University, Texas Southern University. Eleven victims dead by gunfire.

In the Bay Area, a son uses a tomahawk to slay his mother and then cuts and removes her heart.

Three drifters, two young men and a young woman, shoot and kill a Canadian tourist in Golden Gate Park. After that, they shoot and kill an elderly hiker on a trail in Marin.

In Sacramento, an Air Force serviceman, who just recently put his life on the line while subduing a terrorist on a French train, is seriously stabbed after a night on the town. When the suspects are captured, we probably will learn that they felt they were being “disrespected.”

A 56-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries after getting knocked out by a motorist during a fight that erupted in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. Police described it as a “road rage incident.”

Violence Control.

The debate over gun control is pushing this nation into endless rhetoric over civil liberties and constitutional rights. We overlook that phrase in the Declaration of Independence about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as being one of the unalienable rights given to us by our Creator.

I have a right to live. I have a right to expect freedom from violence.

It is time to stand up to violence in any and all forms that it may affect us. Perhaps it is time to look at our national media and our culture to truly examine the messages about violence we are sending to our youth. Instead, we are looking the other way and spewing political buzz words about “personal freedoms.”

For the victims of the past week, there is no “restart” button to reset their shattered lives. There is no rationalization for violence. The Fifth Commandment is clear: thou shall not kill.