Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 158 | Freedom & Harm

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

In the wake of the shooting in Odessa, Texas, the difficulty is finding a balance between personal liberty and laws that prevent harm.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable. Thank you for being here. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, a good, long, and restful Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, something very tragic happened this weekend in West Texas, another mass shooting. Today, that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about. We're going to talk about. about mass shootings. We're going to talk about gun control. We will touch on red flag laws and the solutions that have been proposed and the differences between the right and the left on this particular issue. This is something a lot of you have asked me to talk about. We did many evergreen topics over the summer. The Second Amendment is not one that we got to. I'd like to do a more

in-depth episode on really what the Second Amendment is, the history of court cases surrounding the Second Amendment and why conservatives support it. That's not what today's episode is, but I do hope to offer a little bit of clarity to you on this particular subject. First, Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort, we ask the hard questions and follow the answers

wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Okay. So like I said, over the weekend, another tragic shooting happened in Midland, Texas. This time, it wasn't in a store or at a concert or in a building that's something that we're used to. This time it was a person identified as a white male in his mid-30s in his car, shooting at people in other cars. He was pulled over on Saturday afternoon for not using his turn signals. This was a totally routine traffic stop,

but he then started shooting at the officers and then he drove off and started shooting at other drivers and passengers. He hijacked a postal truck and drove to Odessa about 20 miles away, shooting and killing people on route. He killed seven people and injured over 20 people. Among the seriously injured was a 17-month-old baby girl. Her mother apparently was not injured. There was a story of someone coming out of a restaurant and seeing the mother and her child covered in blood in the back seat in a car seat. And her mother was just hysterical, of course, exactly how I would be as well. I can't imagine the terror and the helplessness that she felt in that moment and the heartache and the fear and the anxiety that she's probably experiencing now.

Reportedly, this young girl is in stable condition, which is great, but I'm sure this mom and her dad are probably dealing with a lot right now. And so while I'm praying for all of the victims and their families, this particular story, since I am a new mom of a baby girl, just really gets me in my core into my heart just because I can feel and empathize how scary that must be. and I'm just thinking about them a lot and have been over the past few days. So law enforcement cornered this guy

in the parking lot of the movie theater. They shot and killed him. Thankfully, I am so thankful. So thankful for our police officers, proving yet again that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun. Bad guys are always going to find a way to harm him to kill and even to illegally buy guns.

So the need for well-armed, good, responsible citizens will always be necessary for our safety and we'll get into more of that in just a little bit. So a little bit more on this guy, I'm not going to name him because one of the motivations they have found and researchers have found in these mass shootings is publicity, is fame is notoriety. I'm not going to give him that satisfaction. I'm also not going to be a part of any kind of complicit encouragement or indirect encouragement of people who are maybe considering doing something like this because they want some kind

of recognition. I'm not going to give them that thing that they crave. The question always is, were there any signs leading up to this? Should we have known that this guy was a threat? Did he have a criminal record? What was the context of the shooting? What's his online history? And of course, the big question that law enforcement is looking at and that we wonder too, what is the motive? What we know is that he was fired from his trucking job just hours before this. So that could explain a little bit of it. Maybe he was angry, but of course a lot of people get fired from their jobs and they don't go on some kind of killing rampage. So clearly, there's something else going on here. He actually called the FBI tip line just before this happened. After he was fired, apparently he got into a

verbal altercation with his boss. They both called 911. This guy called the FBI tip line. But apparently, according to the FBI, he was just rambling. He wasn't actually threatening to do anything. And so no action by them was taken. Public records show that he was arrested way back in 2001 for two misdemeanors. One was trespassing. The other was evading arrest. That was 18 years ago. The guy was 36. And so he was 18 when he was arrested for those misdemeanors. Most people wouldn't say that a misdemeanor alone when you're a teenager necessarily means that you pose a risk to society. He doesn't have much of an online footprint from what we know that's a little bit rare. A lot of times when we see these mass shootings, there was some kind of sign online, but his neighbor did tell officers

that he threatened her with a gun for leaving her trash in a dumpster close by. She also reportedly said that he would shoot animals in his yard from a structure on top of his house every night, which is extremely disturbing, especially to people who love animals. I mean, I guess it's disturbing to everyone. We don't know. They could have been rats or raccoons or something like that, but they also could have been cats and dogs. We do know the animal abuse, especially in a grown man and especially of demand.

domesticated animals is typically some kind of indication of other kinds of violent behavior, not every time, but many times. The FBI also believed that there had been a lot leading up to this, as there almost always is these things just don't happen in a vacuum. There is always something that precipitated it or something that had been going on behind the scenes for a long time. This is according to USA Today. FBI Special Agent Christopher Combe said the shooter's home was a very strange residents that reflected his mental state. He was on a long spiral of going down, Combs said, after a search of the property west of Odessa. He didn't wake up Saturday morning and go into his company and then it happened. He went to that company in trouble and had probably been in trouble for a while.

But that's really all we know at this point. We know that he used a rifle. Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that the shooter had failed his background check to get a gun, but he didn't say how or why. It's probably not because of the misdemeanors. because in Texas only felonies or domestic violence misdemeanor stop you from being able to purchase a gun. The Texas Tribute says this, in Texas licensed dealers must conduct background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System or in ICS. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as if the buyer already has a Texas license to carry a handgun, private sales between individuals also do not require a criminal background check, which includes some gun sales at gun shows. This is exactly why advocates for gun control believe that there needs to be a universal background check,

which supporters say would close the so-called gun show loophole and make private transfers pretty much impossible. Every firearm purchase would have to be registered with the NICS. Some have also suggested red flag laws. You've probably heard a lot about this in the news recently, which allows family members or police to ask a state court to temporarily remove gun. from someone they believe is a violent threat based on something they've said or done. Better Work and other Democratic candidates for the presidency propose gun buyback programs where the government would literally confiscate certain kinds of guns, what they consider

assault-style guns or military-style guns. The pushback on all of this from gun rights advocates is that each of these suggestions limits the freedoms of responsible citizens. That's the big argument that we've been having. Universal background checks would essentially require a registry of all guns, which many believe is an invasion of privacy and an over-encroachment of the government. The check also adds a cost to the purchase of buying a gun, which could make it more difficult for poor people to purchase a gun legally. That's a problem. The red flag laws, they sound really good in theory.

I think that they sound good on the surface, but there is a risk of manipulating them. There's a risk of politicization, for example. someone disagrees with you politically or maybe it's theologically or whatever and they petition the court to remove your weapons. The court may share this person's political inclinations and agree to take your weapons away for that reason. There's just no way of guaranteeing that there would be a fair objective standard for these laws. And President Trump actually, interestingly, demonstrated this problem when he tweeted about Chris Cuomo getting angry at someone in public for calling him freedom. He said that maybe Cuomo poses a threat under red flag laws and should have his guns taken away because he's an angry guy. Well, obviously President Trump was being sarcastic. He was being facetious. But that is exactly what we should be afraid of with these kinds of laws. Using red flag laws as either a personal or political or professional, whatever it is, weapon against someone. Red flag laws would just be very difficult to enforce. There was actually a story last week out of Portland about a Marine. who said online that he would quote slaughter Antifa,

you know, Antifa, the violent thugs, if he were attacked. So he's talking about acting in self-defense and all of his guns under these red flag laws in Oregon were removed from him. That is crazy. I don't see how that's not unconstitutional. And while I do think that we need to do a better job of that,

a better job of tracking people who potentially pose a threat, that's just very difficult. I mean, think about it. There are a lot of just weird, erratic people in the world who are into some really freaky stuff, who don't necessarily, though, pose a threat of violence. And they have a right to be weird. They have a right to be into freaky stuff.

We don't have to agree with it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a right to own a gun. People have suggested gun buyback programs where the police buy your guns. It is mandatory. Of course, we know that bad guys won't turn in their guns, and this costs money.

It's a terrible idea. Here is better work talking about that. We're going to speak as defiantly and as strongly as we can, but we're also going to take action. Universal background checks, red flag laws, and into the sales of weapons of war, and buying those AK-47s and AR-15s back. So there have been supposed solutions put forth, but really the conversation after something like this happens is predictable. Before the bodies are even cold, liberals are saying that it is a gun problem, that it's even a white male problems, conservatives are arguing that it's not a gun problem, guns don't shoot people, and let me just give credence to both arguments. On the one hand, conservatives are right. Guns don't shoot people. A gun has

never committed a crime. A gun is neither good nor bad. It is an inanimate object that can be used in self-defense. It can be used for sport, for hunting, or for evil. It depends on who is behind the gun. A bad person behind a gun means that bad things are probably going to happen. And if a responsible gun owner is behind the gun, they probably won't. Bad people will find a way to do what they want, no matter what the gun laws are, no matter what their weapon of choice is. So there's no use in passing laws, conservatives say, that would violate the rights of responsible gun owners who do make up the majority of gun ownership. To which, however, the left says, sure, a gun doesn't fire on its own, but we already have laws that make assault and murder illegal and these people

are still assaulting and murdering people, there has to be a law or a series of laws regulating the weapon of choice for these mass shooters, they would say. Yes, a bad person may use a knife or a truck or a shovel, but in this country they typically don't. And these kinds of weapons are apparently capable of killing a lot more people, a lot faster than other kinds of weapons. So why don't we try to limit the casualties as much as possible

as much as we can by getting rid of these guns? That's what people on the left would say, or gun control advocates would say. And I get that. I understand how that makes sense. I really do. And these, what I just did is a really good faith rendering of both arguments. Both sides really have a lot of dishonesty.

But taking the most honest of both sides, the best of both sides, what we're talking about essentially is how to balance our personal liberty, our constitutional right to bear arms with public safety. The nature of personal liberty is that there will always be risk. Same thing with free speech, for example. Free speech means there is a risk of you being offended. There is a risk of hearing me say something that you don't like. The question is how much risk are we willing to bear?

And is it possible to mitigate the risk of harm without severely hampering individual liberty? That's the real question that we're asking. That's the real debate that we're having. If we can get past all of the punditry and all of the politicization of this, that is the question. that we are trying to answer. So the problem is, and here's where I reveal my issue with the leftist position on this in particular, is that the left, especially today, just has a very low value on individual

liberty, whereas the right cares about both harm and liberty. The left really only cares about harm, especially in this case. And they believe that taking guns away and making it harder to get guns is the answer to preventing harm. While the question is, is this true? because I think all of us would like to prevent mass shootings. All of us would like fewer casualties, but does taking guns away really prevent shootings?

There is a meme that you've probably seen that goes around every time a mass shooting happens with the list of flags. It's, you know, the flag emojis and a number next to it. And all, next to all of the flags is the number zero. And then there's the American flag at the very bottom. And the number next to it, I think is like 250, accounting for how many mass shootings have occurred this year. Celebrity share it.

Everyone shares it. It's been shared millions of times and people share it without giving any kind of source without citing, hey, this is where I got these numbers from. They just say, nope, this is a fax because someone tweeted it out. But we should probably ask some questions before we just take this at face value. Like this person who created this mean, what is the definition of mass? Technically, it is four or more people shot at the same time. but we don't know if that's this person's definition of mass shooting, say that it is. We don't have a citation for it, so we don't know if it's really true that four or more people haven't been shot at the same time in any of these other countries that are listed, especially considering that the homicide rates for some of the countries on this list are much higher than the United States.

In Brazil, for example, they have extremely strict gun laws, and yet their murder rate is one of the highest murder rates in the world that goes for most of Central and South America and Mexico, by the way, there is a nonpartisan study that I've cited before by Lot and Moody. I have it in the highlights on my Instagram that you can go look at it there. You can just swipe up and see the whole study for yourself so you know that I'm not making this up. They found that there is no correlation, no correlation at all between the number of guns in a country and the number of homicides. A lot of people say that if you look at other countries, shootings go down after strict gun laws go into place.

But if you look at the charts that these people are citing, before and after those gun laws are actually put into place, what you'll see is that the number of shootings was already on the decline before the laws were even passed. Getting rid of guns is only going to make people like you and me unsafe. We are not safer as a society if I, for example, don't have a gun. By taking away my guns from me and my feet, family are making it harder for me to get a gun, you do absolutely nothing to contribute to the safety

of this country. You've done nothing. All you've done is violate my freedoms and make me more vulnerable. Because guess what? If a 200-pound guy, or less than that, even if a 150-pound guy approaches me and my child on the street and tries to assault me, I'm powerless. It doesn't matter how quick I am with my mace. It doesn't matter how good I am with my knife. Not that I carry a knife, but if I did, it doesn't matter how many self-defense classes I've taken. I probably won't be able to fight him off. Maybe if I'm lucky, maybe if I'm really lucky and he happens to be really slow. But my Trump card is going to be my gun. If I and if you, gun owner, know how to handle it well. And this is the same for almost every woman and a lot of men. And of course, it's not just criminals. The Second

Amendment protects us against. It's the government. It's tyranny. The taking away of our free You've probably heard the Second Amendment protects the First Amendment, and that's true. This is precisely why the Second Amendment exists. The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed for some reason. For some reason. Some people like to pretend like that part doesn't exist, that it's just a well-regulated militia. No, the founders did not want a nation in which only the government and law enforcement are armed. That makes you powerless to the whims of a tyrant.

and that is exactly what they sought to avoid. You don't have to like guns or own a gun to respect the rights of people to defend themselves how they see fit. I don't judge you if you don't own a gun or if guns scare you, that's totally fine. I want you to be able to protect yourself with pepper spray if you want to. I want you to be able to protect your family by, I don't know, Taekwondo if you want. I also want you to be able to own a gun if you want to. I want you to be able to take your protection into your own hands.

I want you to have the ability to defend yourself and to help those around you should the opportunity arise. There is this utter misconception among a lot of people on the left, especially the coastal elites, especially those who live in big cities who just don't seem to understand this, that people who own guns or people who believe in the right to bear arms aren't gun nuts. Maybe you are, and that's totally fine. if you love guns and you love going out and shooting guns and you're obsessed with going to gun shows, that's totally fine. But the vast majority, I would say, of gun owners aren't like that. Like, I really don't care about guns. I'm not obsessed with guns. I'm not in gun culture. Again,

that's cool if you are, but I'm not like that. All I care about is protecting myself. All I care about is the right to protect my family. That's all I care about. And I want you to have the right to do that as well. You don't have to, but I want you to have that right. what we care about way more than guns is freedom. They think that we are, I don't know, excited about the opportunity to use our gun on someone. And what they must not realize is that all responsible gun owners pray, pray that we will never have to use our gun on a person. No one wants to be in that situation. I think they think that we are like warped in our minds and that we love violence.

No, not at all. We hope that violence is completely eradicated. Of course, those of us who are Christians know that that's not going to happen until Jesus comes back. But that's not our desire at all. We're not more violent people. We just want to be able to protect ourselves and protect our families. But the question is, the question is, misconceptions aside, is what do we do about this?

Because both the right and the left, again, if we take the best of both sides, want to do something about this. We don't want casualties. We don't want this to happen again. We don't want ourselves. We don't want to be put in this situation. We don't want those that we know to be put in this. situation. We don't want to see another one of these stories. And we don't want to have this Twitter

dialogue where it's so exhausting where both sides are so dishonest. And it's it's it's the worst. It's the worst of the American soul, the conversations that we have after these tragic shootings. It is the worst part of us that seems to come to the forefront. And I would say that most of us don't want that anymore. Most of us would love to never. have this conversation again. And so what do we do? Again, we are trying to find the balance between liberty and preventing harm. Last year, Congress passed the Fix NCIS bill, and since then, over 6 million records have actually been added to the federal databases. This is from conservative review.com. The Fix NICS Act was passed in March 2018 and aimed to increase

compliance with federal background check laws by providing additional reporting resources, imposing penalties on federal agencies that fail to comply and promoting state-level compliance through incentives and public reporting of those who don't comply. The DOJ numbers also indicate that the department has now received implementation plans from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 71 federal agencies. The plans are meant to evaluate and improve current NICS reporting practices. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. We don't want people falling through the cracks.

That's a big problem that we have. It's not that we don't have that ground checks because we do. but people fall through the cracks. That is a problem. And I hope that this act continues to be implemented and work well. Is there more that we could do? Maybe. And I know this might be unsatisfying to you,

but I don't have the perfect answer for this. I want one. I want Congress to work on this. I want the left and the right to come together. I want Democrats and Republicans to come together and have a conversation about this. But I also want to get rid of the talking points that say neither side really cares. Because I believe that both sides do.

And I also think it's a myth perpetuated by some people on the left to say that the politicians that support the Second Amendment are just beholden to the NRA. They just want NRA money. No, the NRA supports them because they ideologically support the Second Amendment because they've probably always supported the Second Amendment. Maybe not every single politician that they support, but politicians, conservative politicians, are ideologically inclined to support the Second Amendment. So that's not why we're not having a serious conversation about this. At least that's not the main reason why we're not having a conversation about this. It's just a back and forth of scoring political points when really I would really like to see these things come to an end.

I simply don't believe that any of the so-called solutions that Democrats have put forth will do anything. I mean, they put forth these solutions in a very emotional state and they don't course, on the legislation that they put forth doesn't actually correspond with the crime committed. So often the legislation that they put forward wouldn't have stopped the particular shooter that they are reacting to, which just goes to show again, it's about political points. It's not actually about fixing the problem. And so I'm ready to hear more solutions from our Congress people.

I am ready to hear how we can make these tragedies stop or at least stop them from happening as often without limiting the freedom of people like you and me, responsible gun owners who hope to never ever have to use our guns on a person in self-defense. I hope that that never happens, but nevertheless, who want to protect our families. What we know also as Christians, what we know as Christians is that no legislation will fix this. No bill will fix this. no pundit will fix this, no politician will fix this, that sin is the problem, and sin is going to persist. And yes, I will say that mass shootings look different in America than they look in other countries.

Homicide rates are higher in other countries, but this kind of crime is unique to us. It's not completely exclusive to us, but it is unique to us. But what we know as Christians is that no matter what kind of crime is prevalent in our country, no matter what the problem is, the solution remains the same. Like, if our essential and ultimate problem is that we are dead in our trespasses, if our essential problem is that we are broken in the core of our being, that we are totally depraved, then the ultimate solution can only be the only one who can save us from those things, the only one who can make us alive, who can make us a new creation,

whose kindness can lead us to repentance, who can make us love, God's law and walk in his ways, and that is Jesus, which means a few things. That means that our sole responsibility, our ultimate responsibility as Christians, is to share the gospel. If that's what changes hearts and minds and we believe that this is a heart problem, then that's our sole responsibility. We can't say, no, this is a heart problem. This is a problem in people's souls and not give people the solution. We can't just be people who talk about problems. We also have to share the solution, which is Jesus. It's really easy to score political points on Twitter and say, this isn't a gun problem. This is a heart problem. Okay. Well, who fixes the heart, who changes the heart,

who makes the heart of stone, a heart of flesh, who makes us a new creation, who saves us, who reconciles us, a wicked people to a holy God changing us completely and eternally. It's Jesus. So we can't just be people that state the problem. We also have to know the solution. And because we know the solution that means something else that we don't live in fear. So much easier said than done, anyone who is in my family knows what an anxious person I am, how paranoid I can be, how I'm always thinking about the worst case scenario, and how worried and fearful I can be. And yet Jesus tells us over and over again in his word, do not fear. Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not be anxious. Do not worry. Your heavenly father knows what you need.

That is much easier, sad than done, but I have to believe that the God of the universe, who existed before time began, who is suspended in the eternal now, who was ever on his throne, who was the same yesterday, today, and forever knew exactly what we would be up against in 2019. And I don't believe that it was arbitrary that you and I were placed on the time and history, on the specific point in eternity that we were placed, not that God needs us, but that He chooses to use us win and how he does. And I believe that he equips every generation. You are not here by accident. God doesn't do anything flippantly. He doesn't do anything arbitrarily. He doesn't do anything accidentally. He's not surprised by anything. He's not thrown off by anything. He's not

looking down and saying, oh my gosh, I made a huge mistake. No, because he is gracious, because he doesn't, he doesn't experience time the same way that we do. He is pain. He is patiently bringing people to himself, even as we are experiencing these scary circumstances. And the way that he has chosen to bring people to himself is through the power of the Holy Spirit through Christians. So that's still our responsibility. We can stay steadfast. We can stay assured knowing that our obligation does not change. That God is the same, that we serve a God who is the same and that he has equipped us and he has called us to the same thing that he has called Christians to for thousands of years. So the thing that we should pray for is to be obedient

and is to be bold and not to shrink back just because things are unsure. I know that's the temptation. That's certainly my temptation. But to go forward in truth, speaking the truth and love and sharing the gospel that is just as good of news today as it has always. been. That is our role. It is not to be paralyzed. It is not to be ridden with anxiety even as we look to our children and say, what kind of world is this? How can I bring kids into this world? Some people are asking themselves right now. God has called us to the same responsibility that he always has, and he's not going to leave us behind. He's not freaking out, even though we are. And he's on our side. If our goddess for us, who can be against us, we know that they're going to be trials and tribut

We know that there are going to be difficulties. We know there are going to be surprises for us. And yet we know that God is sovereign, that he is in control, and that he knows everything, and that he is all-powerful. And we also know there's a day when Jesus is coming back when we won't worry about mass shootings. That'll be in the distant past. What is that? What is strife?

What is division? What is politics will ask? What is a disagreement? What is sadness? What is sorrow? What are tears? We will only know joy. We'll only know perfect peace.

And we all look forward to that day. Until then, we've got a job to do. This is spiritual warfare. And God has shown us in his word how we can stand up for what is true. That's all we have today. I will see you back here on Friday. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political.

They're moral, spiritual. and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed,

you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get. podcasts. I hope you'll join us.