Last Tuesday, the news headlines were dominated by a story out of Michigan of a young man who brought a gun to his school and went on a rampage, killing four of his classmates—the youngest was fourteen years old—and wounding several more. The fifteen year old, Ethan Crumbley, will be charged as an adult for his actions, but as the story continues to develop, there is mounting evidence that the shooting could have been prevented if both his parents and the administration at the school would have been more diligent in addressing the situation.
A few days before the shooting, Crumbley was caught searching for ammunition on his phone during class time. He was moved from the classroom and his parents were contacted. In response, his mother told Ethan to make sure he didn’t get caught next time. Additionally, on the day of the shooting his parents were contacted by the school again. Administrators wanted to pass along concerns that they had for drawings that Ethan had done during class. Unfortunately, the administration did not decide to search his locker, where the gun was likely stored before Crumbley went on a shooting spree.
While this specific shooting stands out because of the callousness of the parents and miscalculation of school officials, mass shootings have become incredibly common in the United States. While there is no set definition of a mass shooting, Wikipedia lists a total of 651 events in 2021 where at least three people were wounded by a gun in a single incident through the first eleven months of 2021. That translates to a mass shooting in the United States every twelve hours. In just the first eight months of 2021, 488 people lost their lives in these events.
The worst month for mass shootings in 2021 was the month of July when there were 84 such events. This is closely followed by June when there were 79 shootings and May when there were 69. Those who study these events say that these are often random acts of violence whereby a person who is mentally unstable is triggered by a traumatic event like a job layoff, a divorce, or a custody dispute. Regardless of the cause, the data shows that these events are increasing, even over just the last year.
Naturally these events surface the often tense issue of gun control, and there’s ample survey data that people of faith are fairly divided on the issue. The data paints a helpful picture:
Banning Assault Rifles
For instance, when asked if a person would support a ban on assault rifles, sixty-five percent of white Catholics answered yes. On that same question, forty percent of white evangelicals are in agreement. In fact, of the sixteen religious groups polled, 13 of those groups indicated a majority support for banning assault rifles, with white evangelicals, Latter-Day Saints, and Orthodox Christians in the minority against.
Make it Easier to Obtain Concealed-Carry Permits
When it comes to making it easier to obtain a concealed-carry permit, there’s little evidence that the public would support such a move. For most Christian groups, about a third believe that the government should regulate concealed-carry less with the primary supporters of less regulation being white evangelicals and Latter-Day Saints.
Publishing Gun Owners’ Names
It’s noteworthy though that when it comes to publishing a database on gun owners online, there’s quite a different response with 12 of the 16 groups with majority agreement that the government should not be able to publish names or addresses of gun owners. This may indicate a sensitivity around how personally identifiable information should be shared with the public.
While the role of guns in a society does not feature prominently in many sermons, it is helpful to understand the sentiment of religious groups within the culture. There’s quite a bit of disagreement among people about whether brothers and sisters in Christ should take up arms against threats and in what circumstances guns are justifiable.
How Will You Engage Your Community?
It may be worth asking yourself if it would serve your congregation or community by talking about issues of safety and security from firearms and violence in general. People need ways to think critically and biblically about such topics. Some resources to explore as you think about broaching this topic include the Just War theory and this article on Mennonites and Pacifism. However you decide to engage the conversation, it will likely lead to a lot of fruitful soul searching among those who seek to expand their own biblically-grounded worldview.