Thread by @SpencerJCox

I haven’t said much since the latest mass shootings. I’m devastated. I’ve been praying for the victims, but I get why no one wants to hear that. I’ve written and deleted a dozen tweets. It’s hard to find the words. I hope you will read this the way it is intended—with love.

Ever since Sandy Hook I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure out how to fix this. Everyone else seems sure of the answers. But I’ve read everything I can and I still can’t solve it. All I know is that our country is broken. Our politics are broken. And innocent people are dying.

So do we just ignore it? Do we accept this as the new normal? Never. Every generation of Americans has faced evil. Every generation has risen to the occasion. It takes courage, boldness and humility—traits that lie within each of us. It’s who we are as Americans.

Unfortunately toxic tribalism is destroying America and our ability to solve problems and govern. We have to start by understanding the real difference between evil and policy disagreement. White supremacy is evil. We must denounce it and eradicate it. It is indefensible. Period.

But there are good people on both sides of the gun control debate. And there must be room for common ground. The 2nd Amendment crowd is right: Guns do not kill people. We have a serious culture problem in our country. And if we are unwilling to talk about it we will fail.

The decay of family, community & volunteer/faith-based institutions that have been the bedrock of our country is killing us. We don’t care about our neighbors and deaths of despair skyrocket. Government was never designed to solve all our problems. Family/neighbors/churches were.

That’s always been America’s strength. We are great because we are good. And while guns don’t kill people, easy access to powerful killing machines by people who are sick and depraved and desperate to murder indiscriminately makes the scope of these tragedies so much greater.

For those of us, like me, who own guns, love to hunt/shoot and fiercely protect the 2nd Amendment—we have to be willing to propose ways to keep these weapons out of the hands of madmen while still protecting the rights of good guys to bear arms. And if we don’t? We will lose.

Finally, we have to be more honest that this is complicated. Twitter won’t solve it. There are no easy answers. We must do more to understand what is happening. Rampage Terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon. Let’s employ our best researchers and not be scared of the results.

Over the past few weeks I’ve visited over 100 cities and towns in Utah and participated in dozens of service projects. I’ve seen the very best of people and communities. I believe in us. I believe the American spirit lives. I believe we can do big things and hard things. #LetsGo

PS: If you are open to some reading on things I’ve mentioned:
1) @BenSasse “Them” and @arthurbrooks “Love Your Enemies”
2) fbi.gov/file-repositor…
3) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
4) amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/54…