Sadly, tragically, scandalously, it has happened again. On Wednesday morning, two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed when a shooter fired through the windows of Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Another 17 people, including 14 more children, were injured in the attack before the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Another horrific mass shooting that left multiple children dead and injured has once again ignited the debate about gun control. And I am just so tired of playing this game of deja vue.

Most of us are well aware of the repeating dynamics of the debate. But while the negotiations among legislators ensue, children die. Gun violence is the number-one killer of children in the US, causing more deaths each year than car accidents, poisonings, and cancer. The victims of the shooting in Minneapolis join the more than 800 children killed and more than 2,200 injured by firearms this year.

And it’s not just kids.  According to the Gun Violence Archive, not even eight months into 2025, there have already been 286 mass shootings—defined as cases in which four or more people are shot or killed—in the United States just this year, averaging more than one per day.

Can the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world really not do anything significant about this epidemic of gun violence? The feeble legislative efforts have been utterly ineffective, and the notion is ludicrous that simply addressing mental healthcare or arming teachers will solve the problem. Do we really love our guns so much that we can’t even try to see if more robust gun control works?

And where are the Christians in the debate?  Where is the Christian outrage? 

Jesus’ Way of Love is wholly non-violent.  He taught his followers to turn the other cheek. He shamed those who would stone the woman. He told Peter to put down the sword. He chose to be nailed to a cross. Can any Christian legitimately believe that Jesus would be in favor of legalizing the purchase of AR-15s for “recreational use” when so many AR-15s end up being used for mass killings? When asking the question, “What would Jesus do?,” can any Christian with a straight face answer, “make more guns available?” And when did reverence for the conveniently misinterpreted Second Amendment outweigh obedience to the Sixth Commandment of “Thou shalt not kill?”

The Bible tells us that Jesus loves the little children. For God’s sake, can’t we do the same?

~Art