Why So Many Mass Shootings?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

So what's behind the recent rise in mass shootings in America? It's time for The Line of Fire, with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks friends for joining us today on The Line of Fire. We're going to talk about a very sensitive issue, a very important issue, and in terms of tragedies, one of the great tragedies that happens in America, so many mass shootings, so many families at the end of the day getting news that a loved one has been killed, murdered in cold blood, and the shock of it, and it's becoming more and more common in the news. What's behind it?

866-34-TRUTH is the number to call, 866-34-87-884. We're going to talk about a lot of issues, and personally, although I'm not a big Second Amendment person, and it's not a major focus of mine, I'm not a gun owner myself, I'm part of the NRA, I don't believe the guns are the major issue at all here, but we'll talk about it. Why the recent spike? If you're watching the news, just video footage, if you're watching the news, you're going to be seeing this more and more and more. As I'm speaking, we'll just put some video up here, 45 mass shootings in the last month, crime alert, incidences where four-plus people are shot. This is a local Fox affiliate. We'll look at a CNN headline in a moment, same headline, 45 mass shootings, eight dead, Parkland High School, four dead, Tequila Bar, just the headlines are going too quick for me to read, and shootings in Houston, shootings in Wisconsin, shootings in Colorado, Indianapolis.

It's just, it's the news. It's like a constant flood. Just like anyone else, I'm just seeing the headlines, seeing the headlines. Here, U.S. reeling from more mass shootings. All right, we can take the video footage down for those watching, but it's constant. It's one thing after another after another. And I wasn't even getting the numbers right and the places right as I was reading because there were just flash headlines coming up to illustrate the point in recent years, but now in recent months.

Why? Why this terrible spike in recent months? Others use mass shootings as three-plus, not including the shooter. So three-plus people killed or wounded, not including the shooter.

That brings the number up even higher. And then with gang-related shootings and on and on, it's an epidemic level. Now, I understand if you look at car accidents, if you look at other things like that, that people are dying all the time.

Unexpectedly, you go to work one day, you don't come back. I understand that. I understand there's tragedy and pain in a million different ways in America. I'm not minimizing any of that, but I am asking what is going on.

Why? So look at this headline, CNN, but others as well. This is just from a day or two ago. The US has reported at least 45 shootings in the last month. Now, I went looking for these headlines just because I kept seeing reports, one shooting after another after another. And I said, there must be a spike.

There must be an increase. Now, I'm quite aware of the narrative that there will be more coverage if it is a white shooter. I mean, this is the narrative these days, an angry white supremacist or an angry white American shooting people.

I understand that. So you have the tragic shooting in Boulder, Colorado, and it's massive news. You know, the grocery store got cop killed as well. People gunned down in cold blood. And then when the news came that the shooter was actually from Syria, Syrian background, therefore Middle Eastern, not white American, suddenly it dropped out and didn't seem to fit the narrative. Obviously, it's virtually all men involved, but they're people of color as well. Then you add in gang related shootings, it's going to be disproportionately people of color, mass shootings on average, white Americans, white males. It's across the board, though.

Here, look at this. New York Times has a graphic, a partial list of mass shootings in the United States in 2021. And now you're just looking all over the place, you know, in Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, Indianapolis, Chicago, Illinois, just all over the map, one killing after another, one mass shooting after another. What do you think is causing the spike? What's your opinion?

866-348-7884. We surveyed people on Facebook and Twitter, got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of responses. And, you know, for some people, guns are the issue, period. It's that simple. Guns are the issue and gun control is the solution to the problem. Now, here's why I have a common sense issue with that.

Now, please hear me. I'm all for examining how we do background checks, all for that, all for making sure that there are national databases. So if a guy's a criminal in one state, then it's definitely known in another state. I don't know how much of that is properly tracked. You know, sometimes we've seen this happen.

Somebody failed to make an entry. Someone dismissed from the military and should not be allowed to own guns ever and somebody forgot to enter that in the record, then the person ends up being a mass shooter and gets a gun legally. But my simple reason for not saying that guns are the major issue here, even I'm open to discussing should all weapons be available to the general public.

I'm open to discussing all those questions. So I again, I am not your typical God and guns conservative, but we've always had guns in our country. We've always had guns in our culture and we have not had this level of violence.

And then even now, why the explosion? Why so many last year, this year? Does it even tie in with the larger unrest in the society and the protests and the riots and a lot of other stuff going on that we're a society that is agitated right now? What do you think?

What's causing this? I was reading an article on the Snopes website, which is a fact-checking website, but infinitely leaning left. So they're checking facts, but they're not always checking them in an impartial way. So they're talking about the argument that one of the biggest issues is fatherless homes and that if you look, say through 2019, 2020, the vast majority of the shooters came from fatherless homes, broken homes, and I've seen data to support that. And I do believe that generally speaking, it's always going to be an issue in society. In other words, when you have a breakdown in the family, it's going to show itself in many different ways. When you have a breakdown in the family, it's going to manifest itself in many different ways and you will see societal breakdown on a larger level.

And any sociologist that studied the data would come to that same conclusion. Now, how it works out with mass shootings. So Snopes said in August 2019, as the topic of mass shootings, again gripped the United States after back-to-back massacres, numerous pundits and social media users attempted to suss out the reason why such attacks keep happening.

And they give a list here. Some blame gun control laws and rise in white supremacy while others laid the blame on mental illness, video games, a lack of thoughts and prayers, gay marriage and fatherless households. In other words, people are searching why is this the case?

Now, let's just look at something. Where does America compare to other nations when it comes to death by gun violence? Now, what about two-thirds of death by guns are suicides in America. But according to PolitiFact, which is also left-leaning, I believe, this is firearm injury deaths in different countries through 2016. And if you look at deaths per capita, so highest on the list was Venezuela, second Guatemala, third Colombia, fourth Brazil, fifth Mexico, and sixth the United States.

Injuries, deaths. Now, if you look at 2016 firearm deaths per 100,000 people, so number one on the list, El Salvador, I'm just going to go down in order. Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, and then Greenland.

That's a surprise. Honduras, Virgin Islands, Brazil, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Afghanistan, Belize, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Guyana, Dominican Republic, and then United States. So this idea that in terms of gun violence, America leads the world was something not true. Now, we've got a big country, 330 million people. Therefore, numbers of deaths very high. But overall, in terms of gun violence, we're actually way down the list. Now, what's interesting, if you transfer this over and say, okay, look and say UK, where you have very, very little gun violence, what's interesting is that the UK has much more knife violence. So it's people killing people with knives. It doesn't minimize the tragedy. It doesn't minimize the horror. Here, Guardian reports, knife offenses hit record high in 2019 in England and Wales.

Police recorded 45,267 crimes, obviously knife related crimes there. None of this minimizes the pain. None of this minimizes the trauma. Again, I'm all for looking at all issues. In other words, what can be done to address this problem?

Is it completely holistic and going back to the family? Is it something that ties in with unique aspects of our culture? Is it the culture of violence in which we're raised with constant entertainment, with extreme violence from our earliest childhood, sometimes right through our adulthood?

Is that part of it? Are there issues with our laws? I mean, let's look at everything, right? As God-fearing, life-loving Americans, let's look at everything that's relevant.

But personally, again, since we've always had guns in our country, and since we have not had mass shootings on this level, always through our history, they've been here and there, but come on, much more rare. What's causing the spike now? Why recent years? Why in particular recent months? Is it demonic activity behind?

Is this some spiritual thing more than anything? We'll talk about it. 866-348-7884.

We'll look at some of the suggestions some of you're giving, and then I'll give my own viewpoint when we come back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-342.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire today. Like always, on the broadcast, it's no holds barred. As long as you don't use profanity, it's a Christian radio station, and as long as you do your best to be respectful to others, just area viewpoints, you can think I'm completely wrong. You can think I'm completely missing the boat. You can think that the whole issue with mass shootings is gun control, and it's that simple, period, end of subject. Or you could have the exact opposite view. You could think that this is all some type of a democratic government plot to make gun owners look bad, to take weapons away from Americans so that they can take over. You can have any viewpoint. That's fine. The reason we have live talk radio is you can call in and air your views.

866-342. I'm going to head over to my Facebook page and take a look at some of the comments that came in when I asked the simple question in terms of why we're having these problems in increasing measure in our society. One of the interesting things that was posted, and there were a number of people who had this opinion, was that somehow the Democrats were behind this. That somehow the Democrats were sponsoring this, or provoking this, or even paying the people to engage in these atrocities. And there were quite a few that seemed to agree with that.

Do you think that's possible? I mean, to me, that's outlandish. I'm just being candid with you. That's completely and utterly outlandish.

I asked for your viewpoints, not to ridicule you, but to ask you to be honest, and then I'm being honest. To me, that's utterly outlandish, that finding someone, some unstable person, hey, we'll pay you to go in and start shooting people. And by the way, you may get shot by the police yourself, or you may decide the best thing to do is shoot yourself at the end. But hey, we'll make sure it gets in your bank account. I mean, do we actually envision that? All I know, governments, all governments can do all kinds of nefarious things. Imagine if we knew everything our government did, Republican, Democrat, around the world, we'd be shocked.

And we certainly wouldn't approve of all of it. But you actually think that's happened. Hey, if that's your view, to me, that's outlandish. That's outlandish and ridiculous. But if you think there's an argument that can be made for it, give us a call.

Let me say one more thing. When Democrats make any mass shooting into an immediate platform for their position, that's a totally different issue. It is a completely different issue when they say, okay, here's a crisis, let us use it to advance our particular agenda. And look, won't any political party do that? If you have a crisis of illegal immigrants at the border, and you stand for strong borders, won't you use that crisis to say, hey, we have a problem, right?

Everybody does that. The question is, is it fair? Is it right?

Is it just? All right, 866-344-TRUTH. Let us head over to the phones. And we'll start with Mary in West Des Moines, Iowa. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Pastor Michael. Hey. And thank you for asking this question that I wish the newspapers would ask. They always rush to the gun thing, it seems. And I don't know, probably people remember the Columbine shooting.

Of course. And Rachel, was it Rachel Scott? Her dad wrote a letter and took it to Congress, and I think he was allowed to read it.

I'm not sure, and I'm hoping it might be on, I couldn't find my copy. It might be on YouTube, but he said it's the heart that we have to change. It's not the gun control. And so I think when we're asked to surrender the fact that we can have guns, that's not a good thing, however it's coming. But I think people that, we do have to have safety cautions, like people that can't think straight shouldn't probably have a gun, and things like that.

That's sort of common sense. I think it's a hard issue, and it leads to the world versus God, and the people that understand the kingdom will think it's the heart issue, and the people in the world will think it's a gun issue. And I don't know, the only bridge is God through Jesus. But that's pretty broad, but you know, that means... Well, Mary, let me just ask you this.

Certainly the ultimate issue is the heart issue and the God issue, and any God-fearing person would have to recognize that. But why do you think in recent months, last year, that we have these spikes, right now it's one of these seasons of a spike of mass shootings in America. Why do you think it's more pronounced now? Is there more demonic activity? Is there less looking to God? What's your own view? That's a good question, and I don't know.

Maybe it could be demonic. I wouldn't use that phrase, but we have more internet, and weak people are exposed to that, and other people prey on weak people. And so I think they ought to find out what the people that have done the mass shooting, who their friends are, and who they've been communicating with.

And I don't think a weak person would just on their own decide, I'm going to have a mass shooting today. I think they're being promoted. Yeah, so obviously something is provoking, whether it's you got fired from your job and you're disgruntled, whether you're angry at America, the Syrian shooter in Boulder, Colorado, angry with America. You have sometimes workplace disputes, someone angry in their home just had their divorce suit chilled and taken for them. They got a lash out. I mean, there are all kinds of factors. What provokes them?

What pushes them over? Hey, Mary, thanks for the call. When you mention the internet, I think that's very important. Yeah, we've had internet for years, but it's more and more just a part of our society.

We're on your cell phone, you're seeing something. And so much of the news media, and so much of what's posted on the internet, and so much of what gets attention on social media is the controversial stuff, the stuff that makes you angry, makes your blood boil, you look at the latest headline. And just ask yourself the networks that you listen to, the networks that you watch, what kind of attitude do they provoke within you? Is it just anger and hatred?

And then those enemies, evil, here we go. Does it produce hope in you? Does it produce faith for change or a path of action? You just have to ask yourself these questions.

866-342. So it's not saying that people are not responsible for their actions. No one can say the devil made me do it, or society made me do it, or the news made me do it, or the media made me do it, or my neighbor made me do it. I mean, ultimately, we're making decisions for ourselves. But most people that are going to engage in this, there's some instability somewhere. I mean, there's some just cold blooded, calculated, but others, there's an instability and then they get pushed over. What pushed them over?

Why are so many getting pushed over? The questions to ask. 866-342. Let's go to David in Chester, Virginia. You're on the line of fire. Hey, how you doing?

Doing well, thank you. I agree with pretty much what you were saying right there at the end of that last call. I believe it is probably an exposure to more of the things that would cause an eruptive attitude out of someone, something to cause a negative attitude and provoke a response. I would also say that having this 24-7 news cycle is bringing in a lot of these things that you probably might not otherwise hear about. I would disagree with what you said earlier as far as the universal background checks and the national database for two reasons. One that would lead to a registration because they would have to know who has all the guns all the time, which could eventually lead to the government coming to confiscate all the guns. That has happened time and time again throughout history.

I would say that there are a lot of felons and prohibited persons. Once you've served your time and you've paid your dues to society and your relief, you should regain all of your rights. You don't lose your rights, God-given rights. The government cannot take them from you.

They don't give them to you. The question on that would be, are justice systems punitive as opposed to rehabilitational? There's repeat offenders, issues like that. One question, I'm absolutely not an expert on background checks.

That's why I'm not making dogmatic statements. If somebody is shown to be mentally unstable, they are hospitalized, they're on medication, doctors recognize, they're pathological, family recognizes it, then this person moves to another state and goes to get a gun. Shouldn't there be some ability to cross-check? Shouldn't that be known, lest someone just goes and crosses the state next to them, gets a gun and goes out and does the very things that they were trying to stop them from doing where they are? Just a question for you.

How do you prevent that? Absolutely. Once you're hospitalized, then at that point, why are you being released? No, no, no. In other words, okay, you have things under control.

You have a creative... Right, no, no. You have a violent crime with a gun or something.

No, not even that. You're seen to be unstable. Yeah, you're seen to be unstable. When they get you medicated, if you stay on your medication, you're okay. But if you go off your medication, you might do something crazy.

Shouldn't there be a national database of that to prevent someone like that going to another state, getting off their medication, and then going out and committing some horrific crime and destroying so many lives? Hey, questions to discuss. And I'll lay out more of what I'm thinking in terms of why we've had this recent spike, and then what each of us can do to perhaps make a positive difference. Hey, David, thank you very much for the call. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. You don't want to get used to the situation in which we find ourselves today. You don't want to get used to yet another headline about another mass shooting in America. It's like, oh, yeah, what else?

Who won in sports and how are the stocks doing? Oh, it's new over. You don't want to get used to it. We can become hardened. We can become desensitized. But these are ongoing tragedies in America. And even if you compare us to other nations and per capita, our gun violence is way lower.

Here we are still. And this has not always been in our culture. There is a great increase. It is not connected to guns are more available. Guns have been available through our country, through our history.

So that's not the issue. It's not that suddenly more guns are available and suddenly the more mass shootings and many of the mass shootings take place in the places with the strictest gun control. And sometimes the guns were purchased legally, sometimes illegally, and sometimes there is just a glitch in the system because of which, because of that glitch in the system, there were, well, issues where something didn't get filed properly and the person got a gun that shouldn't have been able to. Either way, guns have been available. The great recent increase that we see is not the result of guns being available.

So the question is, what's causing it? What are your views for it? Is it just sociological? Is it spiritual?

Is it just something having to do with the specific moment that we're in? Again, I have some ideas, but I want to hear more from you. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to George in Jacksonville, Florida. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Thanks for taking my call.

I just want you to consider a couple of things on this issue. Prior to 1968, there were no background checks. You could actually order a firearm through the mail and have it delivered to your home. There were no serial numbers on guns, or at least there was no requirement to have one. But there was only one mass shooting with a firearm, and that was in 1966 in Austin, Texas. So the availability and access to firearms was actually greater then, but we had far, far less violence in terms of mass shootings.

I think it's probable. And by the way, just to jump in, for those just tuning in, to reiterate, I'm not your typical gods and guns conservative. I'm not the one writing articles about Second Amendment rights, as important as they are.

That's just not my focus or burden. I don't own a gun personally. I didn't grow up in a culture where having guns was normal.

I've got two sons-in-law. One of them is an avid hunter with a good supply of guns. The other's not.

It's just different cultural backgrounds and things like that. I'm no expert on issues of background checks and types of weapons available. But common sense, I do know, sir, what you're saying, which is that we've always had guns in our country and our culture, but we have not always had mass shootings at this level.

So therefore, common sense would tell you that you have to look elsewhere than just the question of availability of guns. So sorry to interrupt, but back to you. I just wanted to reiterate that. Yeah, sure.

No problem. Where I was going with this, and you got to look at Dr. Brown, I think this honestly goes back to Roe v. Wade. I think this may be a symptom of maybe God's judgment on this nation. I mean, we can't just skate by, you know, over 40 million babies murdered and nothing happens to this country.

I mean, I don't know. It would not surprise me if this is all tied into, like you were saying, demonic activity. Judgment is starting to be unleashed on this nation and in the form of this and what worries me, Dr. Brown.

There are no real easy solutions to this. And the whole thing about universal background checks, kind of like the similar color. I have a lot of reservations about it because of what can be done with it. And I'll give you a quick example. Let's just say that your religious views in the future become symptoms of mental illness.

OK, because you think that homosexuality is a sin and so on. Then they decide the government, that is, that you are mentally unstable and you shouldn't have a gun. I know that sounds far fetched at this point, but there's other places in the world where this kind of thing has happened. They use politics to disarm, to disarm people.

And we don't have to really look all that far back in history. The thing is, though, George, with any of this, sir, the question is reacting to extremes. Right. And in other words, if there is something blatant and clear where this person could not be trusted to drive a car, let alone own a gun, and it's clear in their state, then somehow there has to be a way of knowing that beyond your own state for the good of that person and for the good of others. Again, not everyone is capable of functioning in certain ways. Yes. So what if I understand what if, sir, and you're not you're not being crazy and talking about the what ifs because crazy things happen and and government overreach happens all the time.

How far will it go is the question. So I understand the reasons for the concern. And again, I'm not the expert on these things. That's why you don't hear me talk about it a lot. You don't even hear me give my opinion about it a lot because I have not studied the issues through seriously enough to to be able to give substantive answers. That's why I'm putting out things. Hey, I'm open to talk about it. I'm open to discuss it.

Hey, George, thank you very much for the call. And it's over 60 million babies killed since Roe v. Wade. So is that just is it further judgment on our society? Is it the release of a spirit of death?

Is it that once we lose sight of the sanctity of life beginning in the womb, we lose sight of the sanctity of life? Generally speaking, those are those are questions which are often asked over on Facebook. Let's see. Yeah. Kevin suggests there's something dark behind these shootings.

I truly believe that many of them are controlled hired. Yeah. Kevin, I appreciate you answering my question on Facebook. I just have a massively hard time with it. And that got a lot of likes. People agree, maybe some surprise. But I personally have a I can't see that.

I can't see that for many reasons. Chris, I swear the Democrats are paying people to do this. It seems like four years ago with no mass shootings, Democrats want to push gun control legislation and bam, pop right back up. OK, go through the data, go through the data of mass shootings while Republicans were presidents versus mass shootings while Democrats were presidents. Hey, kind Chris, you get a second to do that. Let's just track it over the years.

I think that's an all too convenient answer. Rather, look at it like this, that we've had these mass shootings in great increase since the 1980s. I think it's been great increase. And if you have Democrats in control, the more left leaning they are, the quicker they're going to be to seize these moments as they see when you gun control, gun control, gun control. Each party will seize whatever political chaos is happening in the country and seek to use it to their gain, their advantage. The question is, what is righteous? What is what is good?

What is right? Let's see. Debbie, personally, I think that Satan is more in charge of this country than he's ever been. And the spirit is going rampant everywhere so that it's an increase in demonic activity. Chuck, personally, I'll always believe that rude and honest tweets are so much better than what America is becoming today. If you disagree, explain.

OK, now that's just a particular company. I wonder if there's a larger culture of anger, violence, stir it all the time, stir it all the time. Because look, statistically around the country, every day people are dying in traffic accidents, whatever, in multiplied numbers more than in mass shootings.

We understand that. They're dying in freak accidents in the home, disproportionately higher than in mass shootings. So the mass shootings are still the outliers, the extreme outliers. But but this is what's so important. It's that it's the extreme thing that happens more and more when the culture is is bumping up to the extremes.

It's the extreme things going to happen more and more here. Look at it like this. Let's say you have ten thousand people who are obese, according to what they should weigh. They're obese. And those ten thousand people now are all in a situation where they they have to run for their lives. Well, a larger number of them will die of heart attacks. Then the population is not obese just statistically because the nature of things.

So when things get pushed, those who are unstable, those are angry, those who are going to do some crazy thing, when they the more the thing gets pushed, the more likely they are to come to the surface and commit some horrific act. All right. Back to the phones. Let's go to Mike in Greenville, South Carolina. What's your thinking, sir?

Well, hello and thanks for the show, Dr. Brown. With over 40 years of experience as a firearms instructor and a concealed weapons instructor, I'm very, very familiar with all the statistics. And your question, to use the pun, is loaded.

Yeah, please. The answers are all the above, with the exception of more laws, they actually need less laws. Some of the statistics include the vast majority of all shootings are suicide and gang related. Most of your mass shootings that aren't gang related or suicide are committed in government mandated gun free zones.

So those those laws actually to all the other topics except for the laws that you touched on are including spiritual and most definitely demonic. The in addition also to these shootings is the case in point that we shouldn't call them the news media, news media, all the news media, most social media are propaganda outlets. They're no longer news.

They spin it as propaganda to their to their own accord. The other issue on the laws is and the exception to the law on that you were discussing as far as what if on the mentally ill. Well, statistically, that is a minute, even a sub point festival fraction of the shootings and of those, there's no law that would stop because the vast majority and I'm also a former peace officer, the vast majority of shootings that are done by that category and gang bangers so forth. Those firearms are purchased on the black market after they've been stolen from home break ends and auto break ends, so forth like that.

So none of that, none of the nanny. Hey, Mike, stay right there. I just got one question for you on the other side of the break.

Why is it that virtually all the mass shootings, I mean, hardly without exception, I can't think of exceptions are men versus women. We'll come back. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Over on Facebook, Paul said broken families. That's what's causing the rise in mass shootings, broken families because Americans rejected Jesus and biblical values. Lisa, it's without a doubt a spiritual void and hatred in our leadership. Barb, when the dismemberment of babies in their mother's womb is considered healthcare, why are we surprised that mass shootings is the heart condition of our society, one at odds with our Heavenly Father?

So, Mike in Greenville, South Carolina, back to you. Why is it that virtually all the mass shootings and probably much of the gang violence as well is perpetrated by males? Well, it's a complex question, but on the basic level, the vast majority of firearm owners are men.

However, the fastest growing demographic of new firearm owners are women, so women are becoming aware that they're responsible for their own safety. It's also how we're created. Men process anger and conviction in a spectrum of feelings. They manifest them differently than a woman. A woman's created to be a nurturer. Women process stress, process anger, process conviction and other things in a different way than a man does. Most of your shootings where a woman is in awe is domestic in nature.

It's not out in the community that you're likely to have. And by sheer numbers, also in gangbangers, the vast majority are young men. Mike, I appreciate the insights there, and it points to the fact that men and women are different. There are differences, and surgery doesn't change that. In other words, there are internal differences with men and women.

And yet, we can stereotype that, but broadly speaking, these things do work themselves out in society. Hey, I appreciate the input. I'm going to give you my thoughts in a moment, but another call or two. Let's go to Jesse in Twin Cities, Minnesota, right near so much of the focus of America right now with the Derek Chauvin-George Floyd trial. What are your thoughts, sir?

Well, thanks for having me on. First of all, I want to say that. So my understanding of this is that it really goes down to a root of bitterness. And I would sort of link this not to say that America as a whole is like this, but in the Church of Ephesus in Revelations 2, it says there's this key verse that says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. So not to say that everything about America is like the Church in Ephesus, but I do think this is a warning that the Church has to watch out for, or people in general. And I do think in some sense, the Church is not being the Church as well. If we were seeking out hurt and afflicted people as a Church, I think we could eliminate some of this stuff.

But as it says, this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. I think that's a failing that America has. I think there's a lot of really great pastors and preachers and apologists and all that sort of thing that are doing a really good job, but I think the regular people, the ground troops, if you will, are not exercising their faith in a good way with love. And we want to be a beacon of light to the world, and I think if we can do a better job of doing that, that we can eliminate some of these things. Yeah, Jesse, I'm obviously just focusing on the Church and people backsliding.

We understand that. That cannot be connected in some lineal way with mass shootings in other parts of the country, but the larger issue of the Church being the Church in the society and therefore having a positive effect on society, that should affect everything. If we live lives worthy of the Lord and our light shines, that overall there's a positive effect that we can have. And I believe that's what you're saying as well. Hey, thank you for weighing in.

Let me share some thoughts with you. Remember again that when we're talking about mass shootings, as horrific as they are, as shocking as they are, as traumatic as they are, as much as we're going to think about that more than we think about all the deaths by suicide, which the number is staggeringly high. We tend not to think about that so much. And each of those as an individual, they made their own choice for their own lives tragically. Hugh gets someone going, mass shooting, taking all these lives, and maybe there's headlines right now, it's taking place, mass shooting taking place, police rushing to the scene. So it grabs your attention. Suicide happens, you don't even know it.

It's not reported. But what causes the spike? What causes the rise? Here's my perspective, prayerful perspective as I look at America. As a nation right now, we are super agitated. We are on edge. We are angry. We are frustrated. We are deeply divided. Just the lockdowns.

And even if they were all the best thing for America, and that's obviously how to dispute it. And I go from one part of the country to another, it's like two different countries. One country, you can go to the restaurant, you're not required to even wear a mask. Go to church services, hundreds, thousands of people hugging each other, no masks. You go somewhere else, you can barely move without a mask.

And then you walk in the building, they take your temperature. And so, I mean, you've got all this going on. But even if the lockdowns were all for our good, which many dispute and say they're not necessary, they're actually harmful. People are pent up. People are frustrated.

Then you have loss of income, loss of security, with families under greater pressure, kids home, different environments for everybody, and the political divide. So intense. What's going to happen next in the news? We've been living on edge for several years now. It's been increasing and intensifying. It's part of what happened with the Trump presidency and the constant tension and battling.

And now with the current presidency and the radicality of some of where it's going, there is constant tension, pressure, agitation. And with that, I believe that the devil seizes moments like this to provoke as well. Yes, I do believe in demonic activity does exist. There is a real Satan who goes about seeking to destroy. Peter writes that in 1 Peter 5, Jesus tells us in Luke 10, we have authority in Jesus over the powers of darkness, powers of Satan. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that our battle is ultimately a spiritual battle with demonic forces. So I don't downplay that.

To me, it's like this perfect storm. And then with that, think of this, a fatherless culture where we have an epidemic of fatherlessness in the homes. So that is going to create more instability growing up, more crime, more violence, just statistically known, especially among men.

So you're going to have that factor. You have the fact that we are doused in violent entertainment. Just that's it's normal life for the most extreme video games, just watching whatever the TV show is. And there's all kinds of violence. And even if it's not being glorified, it's just part of the entertainment that we're watching, right? Some crime show and here's this absolutely bloody scene and atrocities being committed.

Now we're going to study, find out what happened. It's just we get desensitized. You add in what others have shared, you know, just our culture of violence beginning in the womb, the loss of the appreciation of the sanctity of life.

So you have all these other things going on. And to whatever extent there is, excuse me, instability in people's own lives, that when things get more extreme, then the outliers do more extreme things. You know, look, someone who is really disciplined and sexually pure and not playing games, you know, surfing the net, looking for bad stuff or going to the wrong places, stuff like that.

They are unlikely to fall into all types of sexual sins and perversions. But the person who's already borderline and into this stuff and weak, the more extreme stuff they get exposed to, they may start to act it out more. So that's what we're dealing with. We're dealing with extremes. And to me, again, my own prayerful view, this is part of the moment in history where there is extreme agitation, extreme frustration, extreme anger, extreme hostility, people at boiling point, people at breaking point, which makes it easier for the extreme acts to take place more often. So what can we do about it?

Well, one is pray, God have mercy on our God, intervene in our nation and make that a continuing and ongoing prayer. I mean, we should be praying for that on a regular basis. And then here, this is this just I know it's a drop in the bucket, but let's each put our drop in the bucket. Let us walk in kindness. Let us walk in grace. Let us be ambassadors of reconciliation. Let us be bridge builders where possible. Let us be peacemakers. Let us not further agitate and further provoke. Well, I want you to get stirred to righteousness and stand against evil. But we do that with a heart of faith before God, not hatred for everybody else. Let's try to cultivate grace and honor and kindness in our own circles, in our own world. Let this each do our little part, each one of us. And perhaps you can just help push America in the right direction.