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Brookings Institute says, "The 'Children's Crusade' against gun violence...appears to be more than a transitory movement."
Another march is planned for this month.
They say analysis shows voting preferences of grades K-12 strongly lean toward Democrat and progressive ideologies and agendas---including gun control, and beyond.
They believe that progressive goals regarding gun control will likely be achieved by 2028.
Once guns are removed from a culture, and crime continues---what is the next step?
Knives?
The Brookings report on the study titled, "The millennial generation: A demographic bridge to America's diverse future" says in its in-depth article and analysis, "By 2028, post-millennials, now under age 20, will comprise a nontrivial portion of the voting age population. However, prior to that, their clout as activists could be felt toward energizing voting turnout and choices in the upcoming congressional and presidential elections."
These "nontrivials" are, of course, the kids marching against guns. And other things.
The Brookings article is revealing regarding the post-millennial generation. I recommend you read it.
Will Getting Rid Of Guns Solve the Problem?
No. A story out of London underscores what many conservatives already know.
After nearly 100 years of gun control, London and the entire UK are now looking at knife control as the latest step in trying to control escalating violent crime and killing.
London's Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan said yesterday that it's time to get rid of knives.
In a tweet, he said, "No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught and they will feel the full force of the new law."
The police will now stop and frisk people thought to be carrying a knife. London has budgeted an additional $50 million to stop and frisk possible knife owners.
Britain began an incremental adoption of stringent gun controls beginning in the 1920s. The controls were regularly increased during the following decades until hoops that a person had to jump through to get a permit for a legal handgun became so difficult and complicated that people quit applying. The handgun prohibitions were contained in the Firearms Act of 1997.
In 2009, just 12 years after the passage of the Firearms Act, the Daily Mail declared that Britain was "the most violent country in Europe" and that "it had a worse rate for all types of violence than the US."
Certainly, gun control doesn't reduce crime. Much has been written about that. Neither will confiscating knives. Bad people know how to find weapons.
With knives banned...What's next? Sharp sticks? Stones?
While the West busies itself confiscating guns...and knives...it has also worked hard at creating an amoral culture so as not to offend anyone. The zeal to get rid of guns and knives is similar to the zeal that removed God from our institutions and public marketplace.
"From the day of the Declaration...they (the American people) were bound by the Laws of God." President John Quincy Adams
Quincy goes on to say that nearly everyone recognized biblical principles and virtue as the rules of conduct.
While not all were "Christians" there was a Christian "consensus" in America that biblical principles and virtues were good for individuals and the culture.
Senator Daniel Webster, some years after Adams, said, "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."
Our first president wrote in his personal prayer book, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
On June 25, 1962, the US Supreme Court struck down volunteer prayer in public schools in the case Engle v. Vitale.
This began the separation of religious (Christian) principles from our educational system, government and public affairs. David Barton has written a book about the decision titled, "America To Pray or Not To Pray."
Barton identifies a parallel between the removal of prayer and school violence. Barton shows that America's moral decline rapidly accelerated following this one event.
With the absence of prayer to God, governance became more and more difficult---just like George Washington said it would.
And now we have reached a catastrophic moral crisis---just like Daniel Webster said we would.
With God out of the schools, any attempt at providing a moral compass was left to the prophets of the secular far Left. Their doctrines of relativism and atheism and progressivism are not working.
The Sanctity of Life has been trashed and devalued by abortion on demand, a.k.a. "women's health care."
With God stripped from our institutions, a moral vacuum has been created and a culture of young people have grown up educated in secular progressivism, rooted in relativism---with no absolutes. No anchor, no rudder, no true direction---doing what is right in their own eyes.
We have filed for Moral bankruptcy.
An electronic industry has emerged that puts video game controls in the hands of children allowing them to kill people at will on realistic, lifelike video games. And rewards them when they kill enough people.
The absence of God got us here---the absence of guns and knives will not save us.
Charisma Magazine published an article a while back linking 14 mass murderers to violent video games.
Here's the list.
1. Adam Lanza, Sandy Hook Elementary, was a frequent player of violent first-person shooter video games. It was said his existence largely involved playing violent computer video games in a bedroom.
2. James Holmes, went on a rampage in a movie theater showing The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012, He was a frequent player of violent video games including World of Warcraft, an infamously addictive role-playing game.
3. Jared Lee Loughner, Tucson, who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others in Tucson in January 2011, was both mentally ill and a video gamer.
4. Eric Harris, based on his journal, a panel of psychologists, psychiatrists and FBI agents point to Harris' contempt for others and his total lack of empathy and conscience as evidence of his psychopathic tendencies. He also enjoyed violent video games.
5. Elliot Rodger, killed seven young men and women, including himself. He was hooked on violent video games from a young age from his own admission, hiding himself in World of Warcraft, where he felt comfortable and secure.
6. Nehemiah Griego, killed five, including his mother, father and his three younger siblings. He loved playing violent video games and even enjoyed talking about them to crime investigators.
7. Jacob Tyler Roberts, played violent video games (his rampage reenacted a violent scene in Grand Theft Auto).
8. Anders Behring Breivik shot 68 people dead at a youth camp of the Norwegian Labor party, another nine in a bombing of government buildings According to the judgment rendered against him, he liked playing violent games. He actually used the video game Call of Duty to train for his shooting massacre.
9. Michael Carneal shot girls as they prayed in a prayer group. Carneal never moved his feet during his shootings, and never fired far to the left or right, but instead fired only once at each target that appeared, just as a player of video games maximizes his game score by shooting only once at each victim, in order to hit as many targets as possible.
10. Jose Reyes, a 12-year-old boy who opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun at Sparks Middle School last October, killing a teacher and wounding two students before turning the gun on himself, had watched violent video games for months.
11. Dylann Storm Roof, spent much of his time playing violent video games.
12. Jeff Weise, a 16-year-old, shot dead nine people at and near his high school in Red Lake, Minnesota, had an obsession with violent animation.
13. Chris Harper-Mercer, shot dead nine people and another seven injured in a community college in southern Oregon.
14. Evan Ramsey, snuck a shotgun into his high school and shot a student and the principal and wounded two others. He claims that a video game, Doom, distorted his version of reality: "I did not understand that if I pull out a gun and shoot you ... you're not getting back up. You shoot a guy in Doom, and he gets back up. You have got to shoot the things in Doom eight or nine times before it dies."
Yes, it would be good if these games were not available to impressionable kids---or anyone else, however, even that is not the solution.
Removing guns, knives, violent video games, sharp sticks and stones will not fix the heart. Evil will continue its march until God is put in His rightful place.
Restoration begins in the heart, not on the streets. It begins with a prayer, not a political policy.
It begins by embracing God, not banning Him.
John Quincy Adams also said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.