After the 2018, Santa Fe High School shooting, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that he would consult across Texas in an attempt to prevent gun violence in schools. He had a series of round-table discussions followed at the state capitol. In a speech to a NRA convention in Dallas almost two weeks later, Abbott said, "The problem is not guns, it’s hearts without God".
So, if that is the problem..what is the answer? It would be making efforts to turn hearts toward God, would it not? Or is it blaming the Christian church for not reaching those hearts? And how does an elected official deal with that when separation of church and state is a paramount issue throughout America's history?
A few days later Abbott published a Youtube video saying the shooter broke "two gun laws the day he committed the multiple murders"..... It is a felony to possess a gun on school property" and "what he did on campus is capital murder. That's a crime that would have subjected him to the death penalty in Texas." So, if that is the answer..what is the problem? Are shooters concerned about committing a crime? Obviously not. The State of Texas has executed 578 people since 1982. Seems to me that if you combine both responses from Governor Abbott that the shootings resulted because they had a godless heart and ignorance of capital penalties.
Before God reaches hearts, men are subject only to or restrained by secular rules and laws of society. Don't kill people with guns. Governments can only really control the penalty phase of any legal breach of justice...though lawyers can often breach that and do quite often.
Reaching hearts is actually the most sure way. But you can't make reaching hearts a law with consequences no matter how hard you try to legislate it. And since the second amendment is applied in the way it is today which gives any gun enthusiast an orgasm there aren't much options...or maybe none at all in the Republican mind.
