By The Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah, Alpine
Following the Parkland High School AR-47 carnage students have become the adults in the room, organizing for a long, overdue national conversation about reducing gun violence. God bless those wise beyond their years identifying a problem and acting with a simple goal in mind – making life safe in our nation’s schools.
Some conservatives attacked their legitimacy and motives while opposing any 2nd Amendment limitations or restrictions. The Declaration of Independence “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” clause has been twisted by those quoting scripture, claiming the mantel of “family values” and “protecting the rights of the unborn”, but failing the living.
The SCOTUS 2nd Amendment Heller case upheld the “… longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions on the commercial sale of arms.” Lower federal courts have ruled that almost all gun control measures as presently legislated are lawful. A 1st Amendment reasonable limitation on free speech is “not crying fire in a crowded theater”.
It is written: “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.” Isaiah 11:6.
