No matter how many times I see it on the news, it is the same old story of a new shooting here and there. The result was not any different this past weekend.
Just before 2 p.m. on Sunday, shots were fired at Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston, Texas. The suspect, 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, entered the church with her 7-year-old son and was armed with an AR-15, police said.
Two off-duty police officers were outside the church when they spotted Moreno pointing the weapon towards them. The officers fired at Moreno and she was pronounced dead at 2:07 p.m., according to police.
Moreno’s 7-year-old son was struck in the head from the crossfire. He is currently in critical condition and “fighting for his life,” Houston police chief Troy Finner said.
This particular tragedy struck home with me because I listen to Joel Osteen’s radio show that plays on SiriusXM. I would listen in on these broadcasts when my mother and I drove.
I will admit that I did not want to hear this on the radio at all, but my mom was the one who would recite Osteen’s affirmations to me when times were tough.
In a way, Osteen’s message of living through prayer and keeping God in our hearts kindled a new layer for our relationship.
Once the news broke out, I decided to dive deeper into the state’s gun laws to see how effective they are at maintaining gun safety. Texas is not even close to being the safest.
According to Every Town Research, getting a permit for a concealed handgun in public in Texas is not required.
This alone should tell you how Texas gun laws are being assessed and issued through outrageous legislation. You can argue that it is a good legislative decision solely based on the idea of self-defense, but who can you trust when firearms are as easy to purchase as candy?
For me, this just raises the question even more. Is the United States still turning a blind eye to gun violence? According to the National Library of Medicine, the United States ranks No.1 on the list of countries with the most privately owned guns, with 101 guns for every 100 individuals.
Whether it be due to aesthetics or self-defense, I believe that the access and commonality of firearms across America should be reassessed.
This can be done by prohibiting the leisurely gun laws that some states possess and running more background checks on future gun owners, anything to at least make a dent in this epidemic of gun violence.
Regardless of where gun-related tragedy strikes, gunfire travels far from where it was shot and we all suffer wounds from it.