It’s not God possessing/holding/firing the firearms. Man has to take responsibility for the evil that he does.

The first step towards taking responsibility for literally anything would be to acknowledge that god doesn't exist and your actions are your own, not handed down from upon high.

Taking responsibility = imposing and enforcing gun regulations that work in every other nation in the world.

But God gave man the intellect to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Old Jewish joke: Man: God, let me win the lottery! God: Schmuck, BUY A TICKET!

Yes, and the first step is to regulate guns on a greater level so that they don't keep ending up in the hands of mass shooters.

Sorry, you didn't get to say your sky-daddy knows everything, is the most good being ever, has the ability to do anything, and THEN blame someone else when things go bad.

This is an unfortunately a cruelly incomplete take. Death by firearm is high in the U.S. because it is profitable for companies to sell guns. Other countries have been able to legislate gun ownership, reducing related deaths to a tiny fraction of what America endures daily. The "evil" is local.

Thats the point of the comic. 1. Stop hoping something magically works 2. Stop ignoring responsibility 3. Stop being complacent 4. Make laws to fix this idiotic horrific problem that really only exists in "the land of the free"

Good luck with that. We’d one school shooting in the UK here in Scotland and changes were made to the gun laws.

Bingo! Book-ending my original post with this-

God also commands the slaughter and genocide of others. God commands slavery. Even Jesus didn’t reverse the Old Testament law on slavery. Fuck God.

If he is real he must be opposed or humanity will never be free.

The evil is the perverse interpretation of the Second Amendment that presumes that every individual American has some unrestricted right to carry tools of death and destruction with them solely to enrich the wealthy. We should take responsibility for that. We should seize and destroy those guns.

We were made to make mistakes (if that’s what you believe). We need to own up to those mistakes. This is why I left organized religion. I got so tired of people hiding their hatred behind their faith

I’m not overly religious but I wldn’t say we are on this earth to ‘make mistakes’ per se. Killing children/mass shootings aren’t ‘mistakes’. Ooops I took an assault weapon into a crowded place, aimed and my finger accidentally pulled the trigger. They’re deliberate acts of violence with intent.

You know that "mistakes" and "accidents" are different things right

100%. We’re here to be compassionate, be helpful to each other, and somehow get through this messed up world. Not to be awful to the innocent, the weak, or anyone who disagrees with you.

I feel like I can be compassionate. But also be awful to someone who disagrees with me as much as Trey Gowdy; by basically telling us we should thank the killer for sending these children to heaven

FFS, supernatural beings DO NOT EXIST.

perhaps. but not the main takeaway

I beg to differ. The astonishing prevalence, in America, of believers in supernatural beings is IMHO the root cause of many of your problems. Start with the level of gullibility/stupidity that is required, the money that is extracted from the poor the power/control the patriarchal theocracy etc etc

We were not made to make mistakes. We were made for a relationship with God.

funny thats what laws kinda help us do

Pity man hasn’t made stronger gun laws in America. We have had ONE school shooting here in Scotland, and in the UK. That was in 1996. Changes were made to UK gun laws.

US Republican party is the extremist party of the world, not just the US. No other country has a right wing like them, except for the shared violent anti-immigration. Republicans need pro gun (& abortion) one issue voters to win elections.

The rest of the world is watching. We see what GOP, Trump and his sycophants are doing.

Shut the fuck up.

No. God just watches the horror unfold from above and does nothing. Nada. Zilch. Your deity is either impotent, uncaring or a sadist. Or he doesn't exist at all. I'm going with the latter.

Thank you for your input.

We CAN jump on the first part of this: "Why didn't God stop the shooting?" If God exists He gave us free will, which means He never intervenes in our actions. Shooting like this always have the same cause: A broken mind and easy access to guns. This last part can be fixed through HUMAN intervention.

You don't even need to jump to free will. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7) If god stopped evil, it would be like filling all darkness with light. It's not in his interest, and creation works as intended.

This is an argument for determinism. If God creates peace and evil, the entire history of the universe has already been determined, and we have no free will. And 'cos in this scheme we're all reduced to automatons, ethics, moral responsibility and salvation are meaningless.

No, it's just a clarification that god does not intervene in such matters because creation is fundamentally polar. Creating good and evil is like creating magnetic north and south. Free will is a separate matter.