Another Sabbath, another synagogue shooting. Makeshift memorial with
candles, balloons, teddy bears and flowers. The usual. Plus more than usual
talk about arming churches and synagogues. After all, the only thing that stops
a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Yee-haw!
The state that
was home to the Parkland school shooting and the aroused students who bothered
our beloved lawmakers still bans guns in schools. But that is about to change
in response to Parkland. Our beloved lawmakers are on the verge of OK-ing armed
teachers to go with the armed security guards it has already thoroughly and
enthusiastically endorsed.
Now that we
have to talk about churches, I suppose the solution will be weapons training
for priests and deacons.
The good guys
in the congregation have guns already.
The state doesn’t
ban guns in churches. The state does ban guns at polling places, but I’ve seen
one there, too. The state is generally lets people take guns everywhere except
where office-holders are likely to be. So: not to school board meetings, but
churches are OK.
I know one
person who takes his gun to church, Disneyland and wherever the family goes.
After the last uptick in talk about defending churches as if they all are the
Alamo, we got a friendly gun-toting uniformed guard on Sunday. He often opens
the door for latecomers. Last Sunday, latecomers made up 65 percent of the
total noon Mass congregation, according to the counter.
Along with him,
we got a golf cart patrol of the parking lot to look for anything “unusual,”
and we now lock the side doors when Mass begins. The side doors have been a bit
of a farce. Almost at once the keys walked off with a forgetful usher and we
had to shift to switching the doors so they can be opened from the outside as
well as inside during the periods between Masses. Of course, the regulars who came
late and parked on the side banged on the doors to get in, and, since the
banging can be heard all over church, kind parishioners got up each week and
let them in. Finally a stern usher had words with them. I don’t know what he
said. They haven’t been back. But the doors are now locked during Mass in
saecula saeculorum, according to protocol.
I am reliably told
that at one of our popular churches of Family, Some Commandments and Darned Good Coffee
AR-15s are strategically hidden in gun boxes to which trained members of the
congregation have the key and stand ready to repel attacks of up to battalion
size. The sheriff encourages that sort of thing.
I wonder what you-all think about such goings on in church.
Arming schools? What happens when the security guards make more than the teachers they are protecting...
ReplyDeleteTalk about strapped for cash!
One thing I've considered is laser pointers for dazzling. Green pointers are at the peak of the human photopic response and deliver the most dazzle for the 5 milliWatts that is legal. Everyone could bring one to church and point at the shooter. While the guy is temporarily blinded and suffering a headache, maybe someone can cave his skull in with a candle holder or swing a censer to effect. Sunglasses might be a problem considering the wimpy 5 milliWatt limit. Gotta check out Amazon. Personally I'd like a portable Q-switched pulse job(not commercially available). After one treatment, the shooter will have to swing at people with his cane. Sorry, I have a naturally nasty mind.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, laser pointers. Beats pepper spray.
DeleteKatherine, problem is that I haven't thought out the tactics. And it's never been simulated and tested. I don't know whether it would actually work and what the downsides are. So I couldn't recommend someone doing it at this time. But I think about it.
DeleteSpray them in the face with the fire extinguisher.
DeleteLaser lights will just attract cats.
DeleteHaha. And they can see in the near ultraviolet, too.
DeleteI often wonder what they see that I can't. The other night, two of them were bugging their eyes out and hissing at a spot on the wall. Nothing I could see. Psychotic episode? Evil spirits? A noise they heard in that direction that I didn't hear? Playing with my head?
DeleteThis stuff appears to be spreading. A few weeks ago (before Palm Sunday) we had a rehearsal drill before Mass. The fire marshal was there. The Pastor pointed out the exits from church other than those where we come in. The fire marshal hit the switch so that the alarm sounded and we all got a taste of what the sound was like and would know it was not part of the instruments that support our choir. We did not practice exiting.
ReplyDeleteThe event was portrayed as mostly fire safety, however there was mention of "active shooter" in which it might again be presumed that the active shooter was at the entrance to the church.
I noticed at the same time that county officials were holding training session for church personnel in regard to active shooter situations.
We Catholics are late to this. I can remember going to the Jewish Center (a rather impressive complex) post 9-11. Security was in full display. Last Fall Apollo's Fire held their O JERUSALEM! Crossroads of Three Faiths at a local Jewish Temple. Again security was in full display.
A considerable portion of the world lives in insecurity. Since we are far better armed that most the world, and do not know where the next shot will be fired or by whom, living with insecurity is part of our world too.
Oh, heck, all the Jumpin' Jesus churches around here have armed ushers and congregants. I'd be surprised if at least some one wasn't packing heat at every mass. Just how folks are out here in the cornfield.
ReplyDeleteTeachers carrying guns is a can of worms. I fear that those teachers who are chary about ventilating some kid who starts shooting up the place and would prefer to, you know, teach are going to get reputations as pussies and liberal weenies, and pretty soon the only people who want to be teachers are the nimrods just hoping somebody opens fire.
Why are we so worried about saving the human race from environmental disaster when we're facing this kind of crap?
I guess I'm just having a bad day ...
"Of course, the regulars who came late and parked on the side banged on the doors to get in, and, since the banging can be heard all over church, kind parishioners got up each week and let them in. Finally a stern usher had words with them. I don’t know what he said. They haven’t been back. But the doors are now locked during Mass in saecula saeculorum, according to protocol."
ReplyDeleteReminds me of something I read recently:
"On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were ..."
In other, not unrelated news, Pope Francis has restructured the curia so that a new Evangelization office is now at the top of the org structure. The idea is that the church is supposed to be about evangelizing. I can say with certainty that nothing is more contrary to the spirit of evangelization than locking the doors of the church.
https://www.chicagocatholic.com//vatican/-/article/2019/04/24/pope-francis-to-restructure-roman-curia-with-major-office-for-evangelization
A former pastor, fuming that people came late to mass, ordered the ushers to close the doors between narthex and church as soon as mass started, and to physically stand in front of the doors to prevent latecomers from entering until after the Gospel was read. Enforcing that policy turned out to be a clinic in driving people from the parish. That approach might have worked in 1949. But in 2019, people won't put up with it, and they'll vote with their feet.
Reminds me of when one of my brothers was confirmed. I wasn't there because they asked that only the parents and sponsors attend, due to the expected crowd. When all the seats were filled, the pastor told the ushers not to let anyone else in. So they were obediently barring the doors when someone was loudly knocking. Turned out it was the bishop banging on the door with his crosier; he had processed in from the outside. My parents thought it was hilarious.
DeleteJim, I hoped someone would bring up what you just did. It didn't fly when I tried it at the ushers meeting. I suspect that, behind everything, there is a diocesan insurance policy on which the bishop saves money if we take certain "common sense precautions."
DeleteEven the workers late to the vineyard got the same wages in the parable. You people are too fussy about disruptions to your liturgy. I assume the Mass was made for man, not the other way around. He glad they're making the effort, half-assed as it is.
DeleteJean - don't get me started on going-to-mass judgmentalism. Top three complaints of people who haven't gotten the memo yet about an evangelizing church:
Delete1. Those people all get to mass too late and leave too early
2. They dress inappropriately
3. Their kids are too noisy, why don't they use the crying room
4. They make the sign of the cross like they're "swatting flies." (Church Ladies have written a column about this in the bulletin.)
Delete5. They're sitting in "my" pew.
We have a lot of old people with mobility issues who don't want anyone else in the pew to climb over when they come back from communion. Plus they're "saving seats" for their families who are long gone.
Here is the new PSA from March for our Lives.
ReplyDeleteJack, that is powerful. Thank you. Someday I will share the story of my murdered niece and her husband, my god-daughter, shot to death by a white neo-nazi, white supremacist whom she was working against. I still can't talk about it, though. Every shooting I read about, and that is every single day I read my news feed, brings back the horror. And I weep for the families of every one of those victims, and I weep too for those who witnessed it (as did the children of my niece).
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wish my son in Australia would stay there forever, as it is a much more sane country when it comes to guns. They will leave, to be closer to families, but......maybe they should just stay put. They love it there - it's only the distance from family that is leading them to move in a year or so.
Anne, thanks for telling us of your pain.
DeleteI find hope in young people, in movements like March for our Lives, and the Bernie Sanders movement because they attract young people who seem to have the ability to recognize the need to change.
Years ago when I was in graduate school, one of my professors who had spent some time in Australia was much impressed by their society. It seemed to him to have less emphasis upon social status, money and competitiveness than the USA.
Anne, I am so sorry to hear of your family's tragedy.
DeleteAnne, that sounds horrible. I am so sorry for you and your family.
DeleteHow awful, Anne. I cannot imagine anything worse. These times must be especially difficult for you.
DeleteCan't imagine what it's like. So sorry.
DeleteI have been unable even to mention it until now, and someday maybe I'll share the details. But, everyone needs to wake up - NOBODY is safe - not in their churches, or synagogues or mosques or temples, not in their schools, or in their shopping centers, or even in their nice upper-middle class professional neighborhoods (such as the one my niece and her family lived in. They were killed in their own home by someone they did know personally whose ideas they were actively working against). Don't assume that your racist acquaintance is not to be feared just because you know him personally - and it's almost almost always a "him:, a young, white him.
DeleteI have a Jewish friend in Pittsburg, but she did not belong to the temple that was the scene of the massacre. I had a friend who lived for years in Poway, but she is not Jewish. She may know someone though who is a member of that congregation. My brother and his family once lived in Littleton, CO. They moved away before Columbine, but their oldest would have been a student there if they had not moved. Another son, now in Los Angeles, lived near Parkland.
So many people read the latest horror story, but then just move on. I hope all of you here will ACTIVELY promote reasonable, rational gun control with your elected representatives, especially those of you with GOP representatives. Ours are all Democrats, at all levels of government, from County to the state level to the Senate and House. I am attending a presentation in our community next week sponsored by our new Congressman. But it's the GOP that is in the clutches of the gun lobby, of the NRA.
Support the groups like the Parkland kids, and the Mothers group working towards sane gun control or the group started by the Giffords. Or the groups fighting hate and racism like the Southern Poverty Law Center (who reached out to our family in support, including a long list of how to handle the press, how to handle the hate comments online, how to protect themselves against someone who might get ideas to copy the original crime against the family, and how to with the KKK and neo-nazi brochures that were distributed in the family neighborhoods after the crime) The Southern Poverty Law Center is undergoing some leadership scandals, but I think they are still solid. There are also groups that are working with white supremacists and neo-nazis to help them break away from their groups. I am researching those to see if they are effective and responsible with donations.
https://giffords.org/
https://momsdemandaction.org/
I have never been an activist. Never marched against Viet Nam or for or against any other cause. I do write a lot of checks to very carefully researched groups, and occasionally write letters to politicians or, even more occasionally, to media outlets. But, in one of those strange promptings that happen, the kind that you can't ignore for reasons you don't understand, I decided one day to go downtown to a local demonstration of the Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence - totally out of character for me - just 4 months before our own family experienced the nightmare firsthand.
Don't wait for something to happen in your own communities, or, God forbid, to someone in your own network of close friends and family. Support the people working for rational gun control.
There is a saying about "dodging the bullet". Some members of our network of family and friends may have literally "dodged the bullets" at times, in Columbine, or Poway, or Parkland. But gun violence caught up with our family. I hold my breath after every mass shooting, waiting in despair for the next one. And it's not a future tragedy that is an IF, it's a WHEN.
I don't know how to defuse the hatred that has been sweeping our country, especially since Trump came in. He is not the cause, he is a symptom, but now he fans the flames. I keep reading articles by people more knowledgeable than I am, more wise, more experienced. They often have no answers either.
"I hold my breath after every mass shooting, waiting in despair for the next one. And it's not a future tragedy that is an IF, it's a WHEN. "
Delete... and tragically, it took less than a day for Anne's words to be proven prophetic:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/us/university-of-north-carolina-charlotte-shooting-wednesday/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Five+Things&utm_campaign=ac3215822b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_01_07_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6da287d761-ac3215822b-103468929
Right now feeling lots of schadenfreude over the recent leadership travails of that scumbag organization, the NRA.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/2019/4/30/18510946/nra-finances-lapierre-north-accusations-corruption
Perhaps there is an organizational correlate to the Pauli principle in physics. Oliver North and Wayne LaPierre demonstrated that two scumbags cannot occupy the same place at the same time.
Maybe you all know this: the NRA is organized as a non-profit, charitable organization in New York State. The NYState AG Letitia James is continuing an investigation of the NRA begun by her predecessor. I think the charter was granted over a hundred years ago for a hunting/rifle practice group. Come a long way!
DeleteJames was quoted the other day saying it wasn't a charitable group, it was a terrorist organization. We'll see how her investigation goes!
The NRA is a schizoid organization, and it needs a huge overhaul. I'm not sure what the Wayne and Ollie flap is all about, and they're not saying, but they've gone absolutely nutty on their Second Amendment schtick. They might as well defend use of small nuclear devices.
DeleteHowever, when The Boy's little friends tried to get him interested in hunting, I told them that they would have to take the NRA safety course for youngsters. They used to do a series of after-school programs, and they were very good. They not only teach proper handling, shooting, and cleaning, but they encourage kids to tell a responsible adult if someone is goofing off with a gun, if they see a strange gun, never touch anyone else's gun, etc. etc.
However, The Boy was not interested in shooting animals or even skeets.
I grew up around hunters and guns, but I think we have veered far away from a culture that promotes responsible hunting and sportsmanship and into a culture that glorifies shooting things up and creating carnage or "taking out bad guys."
My experience growing up was quite similar to what Jean describes. If the NRA would remember that its heritage and its core constituency are responsible hunters, I think it would be a good less controversial, and probably even more effective in its lobbying. An organization that has the best interests of responsible hunters could support measures that strike me as common sense gun control. Right-to-carry silliness and stand-your-ground absurdity has nothing to do with responsible hunting. Nor do responsible hunters have any need for a gun-show loophole.
DeleteJim, it's all about the money, IMO. IMO
DeleteAs interest in hunting dwindled, the NRA started trying to pull in the goofs who wanted high calibre home and neighborhood protection weapons. Vigilantes, militias, the fearful, and the unstable. More members = more money, and if the org had to pander to the fears and excesses of these latter groups, so be it. Keep them in weapons with lobbying efforts supported by gun makers and dealers, and you can have more power and clout.
All that much-touted safety and skills training have fallen by the way.