Nearly a month has passed since the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, where sixteen innocent lives were taken. Yet the shockwaves of that tragedy continue to ripple through our own children’s schools.

Our second child, an 11th grader, has experienced four separate evacuations due to false bomb threats. Each time, classes were halted and the entire student body had to stand for hours—sometimes in pouring rain, sometimes under the blazing sun—until the school was declared safe. Our third child, an 8th grader, has gone through three similar disruptions. Naturally, their education has suffered, and the emotional toll has been significant.

Then came another horrifying incident: on May 22, 1999, a 15‑year‑old student at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia, opened fire on classmates after his girlfriend broke up with him, saying he “had no reason to live.” This not only shocked the nation but deepened every parent’s fear for their children’s safety at school.

Once, we would send our children off with, “Study hard and do well in school.” Now our prayer has become, “Lord, please let them come home safely without being shot.”

Sometimes I wonder if we are living in a modern version of the old Wild West.

In those days, a “gunman” was a special kind of person—someone who wore a cowboy hat, jeans, and a cigar in his mouth, appearing cool and composed as he shot down villains. But today’s gunmen are unpredictable. Anyone, at any time, can become one. Children grow up from infancy watching TV and playing video games where shooting is second nature. It is no wonder that anyone can become a gunman now.

On May 20, the TV program 20/20 conducted an experiment with children aged three to four in a nursery. They hid several handguns—with safety locks engaged—among the toys and shelves. Out of more than forty children tested, every single one knew how to handle the guns. When fake and real bullets were placed within reach, the children correctly identified the real ones and loaded them into the guns. They even reenacted scenes of shooting, dying, and calling 911 with astonishing accuracy—like seasoned actors in a movie.

And what about the adult world?

In March, a mother and daughter in Florida got into an argument. The mother, Shirley Egan (68), enraged, retrieved a .38‑caliber handgun from her closet and shot her daughter, Josette Smith (42). The daughter had recently begun dating someone and told her mother she might need to move her into a nursing home. Overcome with anger, the mother pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced her daughter’s neck and damaged her spine. Though she survived, she became almost completely paralyzed—a near‑vegetative state. She petitioned the court for the “right to die,” and eventually her ventilator was removed. One can only imagine the unbearable grief of a mother forced to watch her daughter die by her own hand.

Most people who buy guns never imagine they will harm themselves or their loved ones. They purchase them for self‑defense, protection, hunting, or even decoration. But the undeniable truth is this: the purpose of a gun is to kill. And because we have all become “trained gunmen” through TV, movies, and novels, none of us can guarantee that we will not one day use a gun in a moment of rage—either to shoot or be shot.

We are not at war, yet our children are being driven out of classrooms by bomb threats and gunfire. Can Christians truly say this has nothing to do with us? In the midst of this fierce battlefield, where is our energy being spent?

A sobering realization comes to me: Those who remain passive today will be judged as passive in history.

by WanHee Yoon (May 25, 1999)