Last week, while some were celebrating “Gun Appreciation Day,” a six-year-old girl in Cleveland found her father’s gun, and she shot herself to death.

(http://www.19actionnews.com/story/20631205/6-year-old-dead-after-severe-head-trauma)

Later in the week, a four-year-old boy in Akron died in similar circumstances.

(http://www.19actionnews.com/story/20678028/4-year-olds-death-ruled-a-homicide)

In both cases, their fathers are being held by the authorities, and investigations will continue, but this much is abundantly clear:

when the proliferation of deadly weapons in our neighbourhoods, in our homes and around our streets has got so out of hand that they find their way into the hands of children, there is something terribly wrong. We should be ashamed of ourselves for ever letting this get so out of hand and into theirs.

Jesus said, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” (Luke 17:1-2)

We would do well to take heed, and to work to remove these weapons of personal and painful destruction out of the centres of our lives and our families, where life belongs, not death.