Gun Control in America: Beliefnet Bloggers Sound Off

What Will It Take To Wake Us Up?

On the same day as the Newtown Tragedy, a man in China stabbed 22 school kids, all of which survived. We can say it is people who kill people, but it is clear that the impact of a knife verses that of a semi-automatic military style weapon is tragically different. Our country has a volatile mix which includes the availability of guns, kids pumped with psychotropic drugs, violence as a dangerous form of romanticized entertainment, and a media that celebritizes killers. If the tragedy in Newtown doesn’t wake us up to create real change, I don’t know what will.

Blogger Christine Agro is Beliefnet's Life As A Conscious Mom blogger and founder of The Conscious Mom’s Guide™

Saving a Life Trumps all other Laws

In Jewish tradition, saving a life trumps all other laws. Safeguards designed to protect life are both warranted and necessary.

2000 years ago, when the corpus of Jewish life was fashioned, gun control was not a pertinent issue. It is today. Along with most rabbis, I support effective controls on access to weapons.

To me, however, gun control is not the central social and political issue raised by the Newtown murders. It is access to and the stigma surrounding mental health care. Mental illness is as real and life-threatening as physical illness, and I hope and pray that we can recognize and treat it as such.

Read more from Evan on his Beliefnet blog, Truths You Can Use.

Practicing Non-violence

I have studied with teachers from Christian, Buddhist and Hindu religions and I've recently attended a Quaker meeting. Non-violence remains a core belief of most of these traditions. Though the Old Testament taught an eye for an eye, the new Testament teaches to do unto others. Self-defense to protect one's body-temple feels right and necessary, but provoking violence feels inappropriate. If we really want to make a difference and live a spiritual life, then practicing non-violence in thoughts, words and deeds becomes the basis for life.

Debra Moffitt is an award-winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and Garden of Bliss. Read more from Debra on her Beliefnet blog, Awake in the World.