by Joe Kirkpatrick

Sheriff Tim Gobble's proposed church deputy program has certainly received a lot of publicity, a lot of which has been negative. To be honest, I'm not especially for it or against it, but as usual, look more into why it is being proposed in the first place.

Since 911, airport security as well as border security has been greatly intensified. Since the Columbine massacre, school security has also been greatly intensified. After a disgruntled employee at a stock day trading firm went on a killing spree, many office buildings have increased their security measures as well. We had a church massacre in a nearby city, and it is a reasonable assumption we should look into beefing up security in our churches as well.

I have a different viewpoint on all of this. We can beef up security until Hell freezes over, but as long as there are terrorists, malicious criminals, and the intellectual mentally deranged within our society, increased security is futile. As I pointed out in a recent article, since the Columbine massacre in 1999, there has been over a 1000% increase of schools that now have School Resource Officers. However, there has also been over 1000 people killed in school shootings since Columbine, despite the increase in SROs. Does anyone really believe a terrorist act such as 911 could not happen again just because we have beefed up airport security?

I am not against having a Deputy present during church services. In fact, I attend a large church that already has at least one uniformed officer present during at least the Sunday morning service. However, it is unrealistic to think that if a gunman such as the one who did the shootings at a Knoxville church started shooting, that a single officer could prevent substantial bloodshed. They could, however, possibly wound or kill the gunman lessening the total number of casualties. But to prevent it totally? I think probably not.

What can we do? I hate to be the voice of gloom and doom, but we really cannot do much of anything. Our country has grown from 200 million to 300 million in the past twenty years, and technology and communication abilities have probably grown ten fold during the same period. Senseless acts of random violence, unfortunately, must be factored in as a part of life today in our world. A certain number will die every year in our country from these random, violent acts, just like a certain percentage will be killed by drunken drivers, or abusive spouses.

Today, we have a presence of evil amongst us that is equal to a social cancer within our society. I applaud Sheriff Gobble's intentions, and I certainly don't object to his program. If his program saves one life it is certainly worth while. However, In an increasingly Godless society, all of the increased security measures implemented in the past ten years amount to nothing more than treating an aggressive skin cancer with a band aid.

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