(Note: Before I go any further, please understand that I am not trying to minimize what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That was a tragic event that will take years, if ever, for the children, teachers, school staff, first responders, and families to recover from. This blog is about the over-reaction to the event.)

Every time there is a mass shooting incident, many people cry out for the ban on assault rifles and/or high-capacity magazines for these rifles. The most horrific event in recent memory occurred three weeks ago at an elementary school in Connecticut (see Clackamas Town Center and Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings).

But I believe people are missing the point. First of all, please stop calling for a ban on assault weapons…by definition, a weapon is something that is used to assault someone else. Please be more precise and talk about banning assault rifles; which if we are truthful, is what a deer would call the hunter’s rifle (if deer could talk).

This is still not the issue as anything can be used as a weapon if the person so desires, a hammer, a baseball bat, or a kitchen knife. In fact, the FBI reports that more people are killed by hammers and clubs each year than with rifles (see article on Breitbart.com). In fact, earlier in the week that the Sandy Hook shootings took place, a man attacked 22 school children with a knife in China (see article here), with the main difference being that the children were not killed, but anyone skilled with a knife could have killed those children rather than scarring and maiming them.

No, the ultimate problem is that we live in a society where human life is not valued. Since abortion was legalized across the nation in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision of the US Supreme Court, over 51 million innocent babies have been killed in the US and the current estimate is 1.2 million per year. That callousness has seeped into every part of our thinking as a society.

Does the baby test positive for a genetic disease? End the pregnancy. Too many “left-over” embryos from an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure? Destroy them or use them for experiments. Too many embryos implanted during IVF continued to develop? “Selectively reduce” the number of babies growing in the womb. A baby is conceived during rape? Abort him because the woman shouldn’t have to suffer with being pregnant from a criminal’s act. A baby survives an abortion procedure? Leave her on the table to die. A baby is born with a physical or mental disability? Kill him (some advocates state as late as three years of age).

As I pointed out in my previous post about this incident (read it here), one of the main problems has to do with the change in thinking from what is good for “us” to what is good for “me.” When someone only thinks about me, then it makes sense that he thinks it’s okay to kill 26 innocent people because he wants to do what brings him pleasure regardless of how it affects other people. But the deep, deep issue has to do with the lack of value for human life; and that starts with the lack of value a baby in the womb has in our society.

All the mass shootings that have occurred recently (whether it be school, movie theater, mall, or temple) are just symptoms of a disease. Banning assault rifles or limiting the size of the magazines for these weapons will not affect the underlying disease. We need to return to a culture that values human life of all shapes and sizes, beginning with the littlest of these in the womb.

Overturn Roe v. Wade, instill a healthy respect of and love for life in the womb, and see if these public acts of violence decrease in number. What do we have to lose?