I wrote last week’s Editors’ Picks email while still somewhat in shock about the Buffalo mass shooting. I closed the email with a prompt for you to let me know if you think there is a way to actually reduce gun violence in the US.
Your responses were mixed (and I appreciated each one). Some people are, frankly, in despair over this problem. Others do have some practical ideas, but most fall into the category (abyss?) of “easier said than done.” The responses together reaffirmed for me that, while some aspects of the issue may seem simple, any way forward will be very complicated.
Case in point: the same day of that email, the Century posted a Jewish scholar’s reflection on the shooting. The response to his article has been intense and polarized.
“That is the essence of comfort and consolation in the Jewish tradition: to sit with the mourner and to say nothing, so that the mourner knows that they are not alone in standing for the human dignity of their loved one.”
“As we sat and talked, Kolby said he was ready to get hormone replacement therapy. But the cheapest and safest HRT source was a Planned Parenthood clinic two and a half hours away… I found myself making an offer.”
“The social media algorithm prods and incentivizes individuals to be their worst selves—by design, because that’s what most engages others. Christians have a word for this sort of problem: sin.”
