Samson's Jawbone

Any time there is a mass shooting such as those that took place recently in Paris and San Bernardino the debate begins anew about the best way to insure public safety: to make weapons difficult to acquire for everyone, or to encourage people to arm themselves. One argument is that if guns were not so available the common criminal or mentally ill person would find them difficult to acquire and would either reconsider their actions or their crimes would be less violent. Another argument is that mass shootings take place quickly before even the best trained and best equipped first res-ponders can be on the scene, so that responsible legal gun owners are best equipped to defend against shooters. As usual the church is divided on the issue of gun ownership and concealed carry permits; Dr. John Piper seems to be of the opinion that Christians who know they are going to heaven should never take the life of someone whom they suspect may not be going to heaven (although he readily admits tha...

Many of us who live in Greater Binghamton New York, myself included, are still shocked by the mass shooting at the American Civic Association downtown. People outside of this city do not know its history: a century ago the slogan of many immigrants coming into Ellis Island was, "which way E.J." It was the only English phrase many immigrants had learned on their pilgrimage to the American dream. They were asking where they could go to find Endicott-Johnson Corporation, a shoe factory in our town. Binghamton has a legacy of welcoming and assimilating immigrants. Although they might not have specifically heard of Binghamton,and the town may not have have been their destination, the town is a symbol of the hope of America's huddled masses. What went so terribly wrong, then, last Friday, that one of those immigrants lashed out at his fellow immigrants and his new country, then took his life, and why have shootings become all to common across America? Some will no doubt ...