John Van Nostrand: When does it end, or at least get better?

Jul. 16—"Dear Lord, if you can, please influence someone today who says something that at least gets a conversation started."

Every week I break the context in Matthew 6:7-8 that states prayers should not be vain repetitions. I say the above line every week and Sunday was no different since we had another unnecessary shooting incident that ended with a fatality.

Former President Trump who was injured during the shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign event Saturday afternoon, has since said he is going to emphasize unity for the rest of the campaign. President Biden had similar comments Saturday evening. Trump should revise his campaign slogan "Make American Great Again" to "Make America More Responsible Again."

Society doesn't do well with certain items that cause problems; guns and alcohol addiction for starters. I have no problem with gun ownership. Over the years I've known responsible people who are in competitive shooting events or are traditional hunters of deer and pheasant around here and elk in the Rocky Mountains. I've seen way too much evidence of alcohol addiction. That's for another day.

What happened Saturday showed the typical assassination attempt; a different variation of our 25 years of mass shootings starting with Columbine school in 1999. Unfortunately, those responsible gun-owning people are getting lost in the chaos of those who think revenge and it should only be done with violence and a lot of it.

The 2012 school shooting at Newtown, Connecticut, school may have had the most stunning reaction for me. Those in favor of better gun control in essence said nothing has been learned or will change since Newtown was 13 years after Columbine, and shootings at other education facilities, and it was still happening.

Earlier in my career, I covered a couple of protests where people wanted better gun control, but I never heard organizers say they were going to take guns away. Even then, there were people threatened by the protests and showed some aggression. I do wonder if those people hide their compassionate feelings about unnecessary deaths but are so loyal to the Second Amendment they can't show a willingness to care, let alone help. Bowing down to a piece of paper rules over any other emotion. The paper is stronger than the person. Disturbing.

Go back 10 years ago when there was an ebola threat on the United States. A severe illness, where death is favorable and had African origins then, airline flights from infected countries to the United States were directed to certain airports where additional health screenings took place for those on the flight. During the campaign for an Iowa Senate seat, then-candidate Joni Ernst said she was in favor of a temporary travel ban from those infected countries until conditions improved.

The U.S. went out of its way to isolate possible infected people to prevent additional spread of the disease and death. We have still not gone out of our way enough to improving our environment with gun use. I hear stories where houses are emptied after the lone resident has died. Some of those people owned many weapons. Sure, we all need a hobby. The people who clear the houses are the ones who have the questions on what they see and wonder what to do with it all or what could have been done with the weapons.

After mass shootings, it's common to hear the "thoughts and prayers" from certain others. Those certain others may include the loyalists to the Second Amendment. It's lazy. It's weak. Thoughts and prayers are the first steps. Thoughts should evolve to action to come afterward. More, better action doesn't happen. Both sides go quick and hard on defense and become too stubborn to talk, let alone consider some concessions purely in the name of public safety. More people continue to die, unnecessarily. The cycle continues.

I'm not expecting a fantasyland where we all live in harmony and no one will ever get hurt. That's delusional. We are still a fallen people and we will still borderline-idolize people who represent us and who are also fallen. We idolize those pieces of paper.

All it takes is for someone to say the right thing to the right people at the right time and maybe, just maybe, those solid, genuine conversations will begin and thoughts turn into actions.

And some prayers may be answered.