Over the weekend, 18-year-old Chavez Clarke became the 22nd Chicago high school student to die violently this year. Clarke was trying to earn extra credits towards his diploma, when he was shot to death after Saturday classes.
The killing triggered student-led protests for tougher gun laws and exasperation among school administrators and police struggling to shield city schools from gang violence.
[blockquote]tougher gun laws[/blockquote]
because, y’know, gang members would obviously decide to suddenly START obeying the law once that one was on the books..
Tougher guns laws won’t work unless you have really powerful police who can round up anyone who looks like they might be a gun toting criminal.
Yeah, sure, that’s a fascist state. But what price safety, right?
Father God, we pray for protection for these students and teachers, especially for those your children who trust in you, for your Name’s sake. Please fill them and their families with the peace that passes understanding and turn their hearts and minds toward you. We pray you would make them lie down in green pastures, in peaceful habitations, and that you will restore their souls.
We ask that your Holy Spirit bring honor and glory to your name in this situation. We acknowledge that even if Satan meant it for evil, that you will work it for good for those who love you. Please bring peace, and tear down any strongholds that refuse to acknowledge you as Lord.
Lord, give those in government and law enforcement great wisdom, humility, insight, and discernment to resolve the situation. And enable your servants in area churches, both clergy and lay people, to be your hands, feet and mouth, bringing the message of hope and salvation in Christ Jesus, both in the funeral service and in their day-to-day lives. In particular, please be powerfully present and honored in the memorial for this young man, accomplishing your purposes.
Exactly HOW would “tougher gun laws” have prevented these shootings? They guns used were in all liklihood already illegally held by the assailants. IT is smiply a fact that the only people harmed by “tough gun laws” are the innocent and law abiding. The thugs and gang members don’t respect laws, gun related or otherwise.
I was present at the United States Supreme Court argument and decision striking down Chicago’s effective anti-gang legislation as violative of the gangs’ First Amendment Rights. Nice “assist,” Justices Souter, Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and “O’Kennedy;” — gang bangers everywhere salute you.
I can’t say if there is any correlation, but when I was in High School in the 1960’s it was not unusual for people to bring hunting rifles to school, so they could leave at 3pm and go hunting or target shooting. This wasn’t in a small rural town, but in a regular pulbic school in Houston. No one ever threatened anybody with a gun. We also started the school day with a devotional, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer.
Young people are attracted to gangs because people are hard-wired for community (“It is not good for the human to be alone”). Unless that need can be met in more positive ways than what the gangs provide such killings will likely continue no matter what gun laws are on the books. Besides, the nature of gangs being what they are, take away the guns and they will go back to using blades. Are there any David Wilkerson types out there who can see the crying needs of these people? I’m sure there are and they’re likely already on the ground in Chicago. But maybe it’s a case of asking the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the field and then waking up to the knowledge that this includes us. Do the various bodies belonging to the Network have any plans on planting a church in inner city Chicago?
Indeed, Mr. Clarke’s killers were 17 and 19 years old, and possession of the handgun they used was already illegal under Illinois law. Carrying of the weapon was also illegal as Illinois has no CCW law.
So the question is: Why are police not enforcing the laws already on the books?
An example of the bass-ackward way of thinking about guns and saftey is the Des Moines Pizza Hut deliveryman who defended himself with a gun against an armed robber, but, and here’s the kicker, he was then supsnded by Pizz Hut because their policy is not to allow their deliverymen to carry weapons because, says Vonnie Walbert, vice president of human resources at Pizza Hut’s corporate offices in Dallas, “we believe that that is the safest for everybody.â€
Brilliant thinking Vonnie. You’ve got to be concerned about the safety of the armed robbers too.
Go Dominos
[blockquote]tougher gun laws[/blockquote]
Chicago already has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation.
How will more laws change the lawlessness among teens?
The protests were NOT ‘student led’ they are a creation of political forces in the city. The school board excused students to protest for more gun laws. It seems to me that the best use of school time is not protesting… but LEARNING.