Paul Harvey commentary on Columbine High School.

OVERVIEW

What follows is a commentary offered by Paul Harvey, following the 1999 Columbine High School shootings:

For the life of me, I can’t understand what could have gone wrong in Littleton, Colorado. If only the parents had kept their children away from the guns, we wouldn’t have had such a tragedy. Yeah, it must have been the guns.

It couldn’t have been because half of our children are being raised in broken homes. It couldn’t have been because our children get to spend an average of 30 seconds in meaningful conversation with their parents each day. After all we give our children quality time.

It couldn’t have been because we treat our children as pets and our pets as children. It couldn’t have been because we place our children in day care centers where they learn their socialization skills among their peers under the law of the jungle while employees who have no vested interest in the children look on and make sure that no blood is spilled.

It couldn’t have been because we allow our children to watch, on average, seven hours of television a day filled with the glorification of sex and violence that isn’t fit for adult consumption.

It couldn’t have been because we allow (or even encourage) our children to enter into virtual worlds in which, to win the game, one must kill as many opponents as possible in the most sadistic way possible.

It couldn’t have been because we have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things that they come to equate the receiving of the material with love.

It couldn’t have been because our children, who historically have been seen as a blessing from God, are now being viewed as either a mistake created when contraception fails or inconveniences that parents try to raise in their spare time.

It couldn’t have been because we give two year prison sentences to teenagers who kill their newborns. It couldn’t have been because our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have revolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud.

It couldn’t have been because we teach our children that there are no laws of morality that transcend us, that everything is relative and that actions don’t have consequences. What the heck, the president gets away with it.

Nah, it must have been the guns.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How do you respond to Paul Harvey’s thoughts on the Columbine situation? What do you agree with? What do you disagree with?
2. Are his thoughts fair? Explain.
3. Do any of his comments offend you? Why?
4. Does it matter why the tragedy occurred? Will understanding why it happened solve anything, or make it better?
5. What do you think are good solutions to the gun problem in America? What is America’s gun problem?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Paul Harvey’s statements are provocative. They may shock or offend, but it is good to be encouraged to think through and respond to such complex situations.
2. There is not a single solution to the gun problem.
3. Many institutions—families, churches, schools, governments, media, businesses—must acknowledge their responsibilities to the issue of a violent, gun-ridden society. These institutions must commit to minimize and even eliminate this current societal epidemic.
4. Young people need to talk about their fears and knowledge of guns. Communication may be the strongest weapon against gun violence.