In Sutherland Springs, Texas on November 5th, 2017, the First Baptist Church was massacred.

More than two dozen people were killed. The shooter Devin Kelley, a former Christian, has been a threat to the public for his entire life. He raped and abused his wife, assaulted his infant step-son, and frequently committed animal cruelty by using animals as target practice. Former Air Force colleagues of Kelley reported that he threatened to kill himself, others, and commit mass murder on several occasions. He was reported to openly praise other mass shooters. He was discharged from the Air Force and went to prison. Despite his background of committing heinous crimes, he was still able to buy guns.

This story delves deep into the gun control debate. Kelley was able to purchase guns even after his incident with the Air Force and accusations of domestic violence. Even after the Las Vegas shooting, efforts to improve gun control have hit a dead end on Capitol Hill.  Senator Jeff Flake says the only reason for this shooting is the loophole in the database that accidentally allowed a man with a domestic violence background to purchase guns. Flake engaged in a public debate about the loopholes in gun control with Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter. Flake demonstrated to Trump Jr. how one of the largest causes of the 26 casualties in the Texas church was due to poor gun control.

Time reports that the murder rate has gone up by 14% in the last year alone. Mass killings due to gun violence are abundant in the news. This shows that there are no solutions to mass murder other than to crack down on gun availability. For now, until Washington realizes the backfire that gun rights has on innocent American people, we will have to give our warmest regards to Texas and all other families struck with violence and hope for a safer future.

References:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/gun-control-texas-church-shooting-trump-jr-flake-twitter/, http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/us/texas-church-shooting-former-colleague/index.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/insider/breaking-news-of-a-texas-church-shooting-required-accuracy-and-sympathy

Images taken from:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/insider/breaking-news-of-a-texas-church-shooting-required-accuracy-and-sympathy, http://people.com/crime/texas-church-mass-shooter-identified-devin-patrick-kelley/