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Bereans VLOG (2/28/2018)

02 Mar 2018

Mark Caleb Smith

The Bereans discuss:

Gun Control
The “Death” of Conservatism

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Theophilus says:

March 2, 2018 at 4:47 pm

Dr. Wheeler: You peg our gun violence problem on a moral decline due to the loss of (I think) Christian influence in the public sphere. What do you make of our relatively unique position here? As someone who has lived in post-Christian European nations, I’m a bit confused when people try to argue that America is experiencing a unique devaluing of its Christian foundations. Seems to me that if your argument is right there should be some kind of horrible cultural violence in Europe that I can’t find.

What do you guys think about Trump’s suggestion that we take people’s guns first, and then give them due process in these situations?

If the Republican party is no longer defined by conservative principles, what are people who are actually conservative supposed to do now? None of you seem to think that the GOP is really a good place to look for your ideals now, so are you stuck now committing if only to prevent something worse?
- Matthew Beal says:
  
  March 6, 2018 at 11:53 am
  
  If I may speak briefly to the “lonely conservative” problem going on right now, I wouldn’t say the GOP is totally without its conservative members as there’s still a bastion of conservative members. I still think this might be partially cyclical, sort of like what we saw from the ’30s to the ’70s. It took some time of conservatives being out in the wilderness, but a conservative faction did resurface. In all likelihood, the conservative wing of the party probably got lazy since the ’80s, and it will take some time for this to come back. Maybe we check back with each other in 20-40 years? It’s not much solace, but it may be reality.
  - Theophilus says:
    
    March 6, 2018 at 12:24 pm
    
    I don’t doubt there are confused conservatives scratching their heads as the party contorts around them. I’m sure the parties will change, as they do. What I’m wondering is, what should we do now, if the party no longer represents our ideals? “Hope it gets better” is a fine sentiment, but practically speaking the GOP is now not actually representing their views. While we wait, how do we respond to that shift?
Jennifer says:

March 2, 2018 at 7:06 pm

I actually believe that gun homicides are declining while gun suicides are increasing keeping the numbers fairly steady for gun deaths in the last decade. What we have is more news about school shootings! The risk of mass gun killing events is low, albeit scary. It’s not worth spending too much public money for security or supporting legislation that restricts our freedom.
- Theophilus says:
  
  March 2, 2018 at 7:29 pm
  
  That doesn’t change the fact that our gun deaths are wildly out of proportion with the rest of the developed world. If we were a country in Europe our gun death problem would be frightening to them, and would inspire them to do something about it.
  
  How much of a gun death problem would we need to have before it’s a good idea to pass laws or spend money to stop it, in your opinion?
  - Jeff Adams says:
    
    March 2, 2018 at 11:15 pm
    
    In the US, in general, the right of people–even mentally disturbed–people to own and operate is deemed to be more important than the lives of people, including children.
    
    It does not matter how many school shootings we experience. It does not matter how many lives are lost. The deaths of others represent mere collateral damage.
    
    This is not a pro-life nation. And it still wouldn’t be even if abortion completely came to an end.
  - Jennifer says:
    
    March 3, 2018 at 8:38 am
    
    I think our public resources would be better spent combatting the opioid problem. It seems many more deaths come from drug overdoses. I need to look up the statistics, but intuition tells me this is true. Another area to direct public resources is auto safety. A child is more at risk of dying in a car accident on their way to school than in a school shooting.
  - Theophilus says:
    
    March 3, 2018 at 8:42 am
    
    Well sure, those are both important too! Agreed. I think we have enough resources to deal with all three problems if we wanted to, though. I don’t think addressing gun violence has to weaken our response to the drug crisis.
Jim Myers says:

March 3, 2018 at 10:11 am

I think the debate should be more properly stated – “Why aren’t our schools safe?” When that is considered there are a whole raft of problems from guns to one-parent families as well as the decline in general morality in the culture. Each of these problems should be weighted and attack the ones that have the greatest influence. If that is done, I think guns would fall very low on the list.

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