A Jacksonville city councilman who represents the district where Sunday’s mass shooting occurred says America needs to return to God.
Florida city councilman Reggie Gaffney told WJAX-TV in Jacksonville that America and Florida have a “gun problem” and a “faith problem.”
“We’ve really got to ask ourselves two questions,” he said. “What are we going to do about guns? And we’ve really got to get focused on getting closer with the Lord, because this city is under attack.”
The shooting at a video game tournament at a waterfront mall known as Jacksonville Landing resulted in three deaths, including that of the alleged shooter, 24-year-old David Katz, who killed himself. Eleven were injured.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott echoed the Jacksonville city councilman’s comments about faith.
“Every parent has to say to themselves: What can I do better? Our church leaders have to say to themselves, ‘What can we be doing to get people more involved in faith?’ Because when I was growing up, this wasn’t happening. And it’s happening now,” Scott said.
Young men, Scott said, are taking actions that were unthinkable when he was growing up. “Something’s changed,” since he was a child, Scott added, according to First Coast News.
“There’s something wrong. Why are young men willing to give up their life? Who don’t they value somebody else’s life? We’ve got to figure this out,” Scott said.
Scott acknowledged that guns will be part of the debate but said guns weren’t the core issue.
“That’s the first thing people are going to want to do,” he said. “They’re going to want to talk about the means of something instead of the reason it happened.”
Scott asked: “What in his background” caused the shooter to want to kill?
“Is it technology? Is it relationships? Was it that he didn’t have close family relationships? You can isolate yourself in today’s society,” Scott said.
Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.
Video courtesy: First Coast News
Photo courtesy: Pexels/Ivandrei Pretorius
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