Oregon Faith Report:

The easy availability of guns did not make 6-year-old Jacob Hall safer. It helped make him dead.

We ought to remember this boy, who was fatally shot at his elementary school in Townville, S.C., just as we ought to remember the brilliantly applicable teaching of Jesus when he famously quipped, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

Swap in “gun” for “sword” and you have an apt description of what’s happening to us.

The mental and emotional problems of the teenager who shot Jacob last month turned lethal because a gun was available — probably in his household, which was known to keep firearms.

The 14-year-old shooter first used the weapon on his father, leaving him dead at the family home, before driving to Jacob’s school and resuming shooting. The teen injured another child and a teacher in addition to firing the fatal shot that struck an artery in Jacob’s leg.

When will our culture wake up to the reality that the guns we get to keep us safe only make society — and thus each of our lives — more dangerous?

It’s heartening to hear a growing chorus of activist voices, including those connected with churches, clamoring in protest against our insane proliferation of guns. Earlier this month, the venerable Riverside Church in New York hosted 100 clergy and lay people for a two-day “God and Guns” training. The assembled ministers weren’t trained how to use guns; they learned how to shoot down the lie that guns are the best way to protect ourselves from … guns.

“Our faith teaches us to support policies and programs that protect life, but instead Christians have been complicit for too long in allowing our country to be guided by the rhetoric of fear,” Riverside’s senior minister, the Rev. Amy Butler, said.

Because most of us watch movies, we can picture the scenario conjured by the Second Amendment enthusiasts: You and your family are menaced by a weapon-toting bad man. He is intent on robbing or killing you. But you whip out your gun and turn the table. He flees or, if he does not, you shoot him. You and your gun have saved the day.

Or maybe you come upon a mass shooting in its early stages. Thanks to your gun, you take down the evil shooter and keep the casualty count to, say, two, rather than two dozen.

Fair enough. In situations like these, guns can protect lives. The problem is, these are perfectly framed scenarios that are more the stuff of movies than real life.

This poor old 81 year old man unfortunately lived the movie just recently.

UNIONTOWN, Pa. – A home invasion suspect was fatally shot early Friday morning in Uniontown when the 81-year-old homeowner pulled out a gun, according to investigators.

Police said 46-year-old Franklin Schrout, of Smithfield, rode a bike to the house with tools to break in, then ransacked the home and assaulted the 81-year-old man.

“Once the actor came into his bedroom, the actor was demanding to know where money was. He told them he didn’t have any money or anything of value in the home,” Uniontown police Lt. Tom Kolencik said.

The 81-year-old was able to grab a .22-caliber gun during a struggle with Schrout and fired one shot, police said.

Schrout ran out of the house and the 81-year-old’s bedridden sister called 911, police said.

When police arrived at the home, they found Schrout dead outside.

The 81-year-old told police that he had never fired the gun before and that it had been sitting in his nightstand for 30 years. He also said he wished he had been stronger so that he could have fought off Schrout without having to shoot him.

“The only thing he told us was that he had to protect himself. He also lived with an elderly sister, who is bedridden, so he just kept referring to protecting her, protecting himself,” Kolencik said.

Although police said the shooting appears to have been in self-defense, the District Attorney’s Office will make a final determination.

Of course, since guns are more dangerous to the owner than a perpetrator, this report must be false.  Or it could be possible that the writer at Oregon Faith Report would just rather see this poor old man and his sister perish at the hands of criminals.

As for the DA, the shooting was in his home, the perpetrator was an uninvited guest, this uninvited guest attempted to do them harm.  There’s nothing to decide.  Get to something you need to be doing, like shutting down violent gangs.  Stop wasting your time and taxpayer money.