Today, I had planned to focus my thoughts on those lost 24 years ago on September 11, 2001.

Sadly, I was at home yesterday and saw Charlie Kirk with Turning Point USA assassinated on a college campus in Utah.

It sickened me to read comments of hate, some of elation for the death of a young man who was the father of two small children and a now widowed young wife.

Others talked of more violence on both sides of the political spectrum. Others talked of the banning of weapons to keep this from happening.

I started thinking about it and decided to share the view from my veranda on this day of mourning for so many lives lost.

A gun killed Charlie Kirk. 

A gun injured two students at Evergreen High School in Colorado. 

A knife stabbed Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train. 

A knife killed eight people and injured 17 on Wuxi campus in China. 

A rock killed Alexa Bartell in Golden, Colorado. 

A truck drove onto Bourbon Street in New Orleans killing 14 and injuring others. 

A truck drove into a crowd in Nice, France, on Bastille Day killing 86 and injuring hundreds. 

A bomb blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. 

A bomb killed three and injured 280 at the Boston Marathon. 

Twenty-four years ago today, airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing 2,996 people. 

What is missing in the above statements? We are ignoring the truth. The human element that was responsible for ALL of these tragedies. 

People shot the guns. 

People wielded the knives. 

People threw the rock. 

People drove the vehicles. 

People made the bombs and caused them to go off. 

People flew the planes into the towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. 

Banning every THING that served as the weapon will not stop the violence. Guns, knives, rocks, vehicles, bombs, airplanes did not do these terrible acts. People made the decision to kill and injure others. 

Mental illness certainly needs to be addressed, but we must understand and face the REALITY that evil hearts exist and have since biblical times. 

I don’t know the solution but I believe we can no longer hide our heads in the sand and pretend banning a thing will keep bad things from happening. Evil people will find a way to break the law, ignore the ban, and take innocent lives. 

I don’t believe violent rhetoric from ALL sides is the answer. 

I pray we can figure out a way to live together in our differing beliefs before it’s too late.