After the shooting in Las Vegas many responded in how they felt necessary, but were all these responses appropriate?

You know when you become fascinated with a concept or a topic and you are provoked to emmerse yourself in research about that thing? You type key words into google and scroll through the first two pages for articles, websites, or definitions that will satisfy your thirst for knowledge. You’ll even go through Wikipedia and read every paragraph and click every link that will take you to another Wikipedia page about a similar concept related to your topic.

That was me after the Las Vegas shooting.

The topic I was researching? Evil.

More or less where ever I searched the definition of evil was essentially the same: “To be profoundly immoral or wicked.”

The investigation of Stephen Paddock, the known gunman, still continues and we are receiving answers to a lot of questions, yet one question that remains unanswered is “Why?”

Why did this happen? How could someone do something as horrendous and despicable as this?

The answer: Evil

It’s not because of gun laws. It’s not because of a lack of necessary precautions. It’s not because Democrats and it’s not because of Republicans. It’s because mankind, as we know it, is inherently evil. The heart of men and women is deceitfully immoral and wicked and we can not truly know it.

If we ignore this fact, we will forever be lost.

But some don’t think this way. Some have been reacting and responding to this evil act in ways that I find absolutely inappropriate.

Take Hillary Clinton for example.

She couldn’t have even waited a whole day before making this about politics. She is grandstanding on this evil to promote gun restriction laws in an extremely misleading way.

The NRA and silencers have nothing to do with the Las Vegas shooting. It also gives an inaccurate understanding of how silencers work. According to Dakota Silencer, an AR-15 when fired creates a sound that reaches 165 decibels. If you were to attach a suppressor, the decibels go down to 132. Look it up for yourself, but silencers don’t actually silence guns. For comparison, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that a thunderclap will read up to 120 decibels and the Center for Hearing and Communication states that an ambulance also reaches up to 120 decibels. This means that an AR-15 with a silencer attached is still louder than a thunderclap and an ambulance.

Another example is of a top legal executive at CBS, Hayley Geftman-Gold, being fired this past week for her response to the mass shooting. “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing,” Geftman-Gold wrote on her Facebook page, in light of the Sandy Hook shooting, which she deleted. “I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”

This reaction is disgusting. It is the same tactic the Left continues to do by attacking Republicans and Conservatives on their beliefs. They will say things like, “If you are Conservative you don’t care about other peoples lives and you’re a heartless gun toter.” Yet another inappropriate response.

We also had Jimmy Kimmel, who took the time to rant about gun control claiming that “no one should own an M16.” This statement is also misleading because its not even known if Stephen Paddock had an M16, but police officials have stated that Paddock had legal semi automatic weapons, such as an AR-15, outfitted to act like fully automatic weapons. This technique is known as “bump stock”.

CBS News reported on this technique and wrote, “Gun owners in Nevada, where he (Paddock) lived, can buy a bump stock without a permit, background check or waiting period to buy one. The component is widely available on the internet for $90 to $200.” Kimmel could have made factual statements about this, but he didn’t. Instead Kimmel made emotional responses that were not based of facts and mislead a very large audience into believing things about guns that aren’t true.

The most common response to mass shootings are the “Pray for [Insert city here]” posts on social media. This is a unique response because it depends on the heart of the individual on whether or not it is appropriate. If you post “Pray for Vegas” as just another way to feel like you’re on the inside with those around you, to show you are in solidarity with the victims and there families, and yet you don’t actually believe in prayer, then I believe you are in the wrong.

Let’s be honest here. What do your thoughts actually do for someone? “Sending my thoughts to [Insert city here]”, we say, but none of us are telepathic. What actually matters are, for example, the droves of people who ran to local hospitals to donate blood for those in need. Needless to say, I am an avid believer in prayer. I believe prayer works. I believe God answers prayers and He is in the midst of this evil with us, weeping with us. So if you actually believe in prayer, then pray, and make known that you are praying for the victims, but if you don’t believe in prayer then I don’t think it is appropriate for you to say you are and fill others social media pages with “Pray for [Insert city here]” posts.

All these reactions we have been seeing are just souls responding to an evil they cannot process. Is there a proper way to respond to evil? I think there is. We cannot control evil. We cannot control what others do. Asking the government to enact control on its citizens is a dangerous, and also evil, concept to think about. What we should do when evil is found present in our cities and country, is to look within our own lives and search our own hearts to see if there is any evil, immorality, or wickedness within ourselves. If you do that, I guarantee you will find some type of evil.

It is not the time to fear monger, nor is it the time to play politician, or even make fancy Facebook posts. We need to unite within the common ideal that we will do our best as individuals to be a better human being to those around us. We need to believe that if we learn to love, not only our friends and family, but those we tend to hate and those that may think of us as enemies, then we can cover a multitude of sins.

Michael Jackson said it best,” I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer. If you wanna make the world a better place. Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”