It’s Sunday morning, and Broward County’s politically ambitious Sheriff Scott Israel has a confession: He knew before Wednesday’s CNN “Pin the Blame on the NRA” shout-fest that his deputy had hid outside the Parkland school and done nothing as children inside were dying.

Israel sat on that stage and berated NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch amid the shouts of “murderer!” and “burn her!” To do all that, knowing his department’s own failures, makes him a bigger coward than his departed deputy and scapegoat Scott Peterson.

Israel made his admission in a return visit to CNN Sunday morning. Yet he rejected calls to resign. And he didn’t bring along his memory. For an event so seared into the national consciousness and mere days ago, the sheriff was disturbingly vague. He couldn’t exactly remember when he’d learned about Deputy Scot Peterson.

Again, who’s the bigger coward? The guy ducking bullets or the guy ducking questions and responsibility?

Israel could not or would not confirm reports that four of his deputies had been on the scene. No wonder. One person not going in smells of fear. Four officers not going in stinks of policy.

Sadly, the shabby tale of Sheriff Israel doesn’t stand alone. So much of what we’ve heard since those shots rang out has been nonsense on the march.

The Phony

The cacophony of the past week confuses me. Democrats say that Republicans prefer guns to kids, all while taking money from an organization dedicated to murdering children. (Planned Parenthood’s Action Committee has already popped over $100,000 into the pockets of congressional Democrats this year. Who’s reading that list aloud?)

I watch a commercial running constantly during the Olympics featuring the rapper Common. “It’s not the technology,” he says, “It’s what you do with it.” When Common says it, he’s an inspiration. When Dana Loesch says it, she’s a murderer.

Even more frequently during the Olympics, NBC was plugging it’s new comedy Good Girls. The very moment MSNBC is decrying the NRA, NBC is making armed robbery look fun. A lot of great laughs to be had sticking guns in strangers faces. What is not funny? While this media corporation is glorifying gun violence, other corporations are pulling away from an organization dedicated to gun safety.

I see late night comedians mock and attack President Trump’s efforts to find practical, common sense, common ground solutions … then leave the studio past armed security. Worse, I wonder, “Why aren’t you using your humor gift to heal?” I cannot relate to a deputy not charging into an active shooter situation. But as someone who knows the topical humor world, I would submit what late night comedians are doing is in its own way a dereliction of duty. 

I see Michelle Obama saying she and Barack “stand behind” the Florida students (or more specifically the ones advocating new gun laws.) And I can’t help but wonder: Where was she? Obsessing with cafeteria food while her hometown flooded with the blood of innocent children. And Obama? Was he easing anger and alienation? Or partying with Jay-Z, a man whose fortune was built on glorifying gun violence?

Obama didn’t teach kids to look out for one another. He preached “look out for white cops.” Trayvon Martin, another failure of the Broward County school system to act on criminal wrong-doing, could have been his son, Obama famously said. No so, for the children of Chicago or string of cops cut down since the rise of Black Lives Matter.

His Justice Department didn’t ask what can we do to protect kids from harm. It asked, “What can we do to protect schools from harmful statistics?” Check out the Broward County Solution and Eric Holder’s meetings celebrating such solutions. Read them and weep.

I look at Florida and all the missed opportunities. Who could have been saved if we’d spent less time trying to take guns out of the hands of honest citizens and more time untying the hands of law enforcement and mental health professionals? If the FBI had given anyone a head’s up about the shooter?

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Cruz didn’t fall through the system. The system parted before him like the Red Sea. 

The Complexity: A Tale of Two Cities

Perhaps most frustrating is the notion there is a simple policy fix. Ban this gun. Arm this person. Banish this organization. Harden this target.

Unfortunately, complexity follows us at every turn.

The President wants a greater emphasis on mental health. The mentally ill shouldn’t have guns. Fine. Makes sense. Then you ask, which mentally ill? Who defines it? Does that mean we forever ban any soldier who suffered at all from PTSD from owning a weapon? How about anyone who’s ever popped a Zoloft? What happens when a Joy Behar-type is in charge of determining? Can she decide anyone who believes in a personal, living God is “mentally ill,” and thus can be denied their Second Amendment rights? (Think that’s nuts? Don’t the secularists make their bones by arguing that belief in God is irrational? Ask the people of faith who’ve had their kids taken away because they home schooled their kids.)

Many call for the age to buy weapons like an AR-15 to be raised to 21. Again, fine. Makes sense. Then you ask, “What about the soldier who enlisted at 18, was wounded at 19, and is back stateside?” He gave part of his body defending this country with such weapons. You’re now not going to allow him to defend his home and family?”

Bumper stickers aren’t going to save lives.

This is complex. I know. I lived in Los Angeles. We knew guns. Specifically, the unceasing sound of Mexican immigrants firing guns into the air on New Year’s Eve, who weren’t all that interested where those bullets came down. Or the two young men shot dead in their front yard two blocks over just before one Christmas. But it’s that city where billions get made glamorizing gun violence.

I now live in Texas. We know guns. Literally within two minutes of first arriving in Euless, Texas, we witnessed a citizen who had just saved his whole livelihood from being stolen. Four a.m., we’re just starting to check into our hotel and a young man in shorts and t-shirt walks into the lobby. “Can you call 911?,” he says, rather calmly given the situation. “Someone just tried to steal my work truck. I scared him away with my weapon, but he may still be lurking in the area.” Welcome to Texas. But it’s also a culture where guns are romanticized.

This is complex. Some 15 miles from here, a disturbed, cop-hating individual murdered five Dallas police officers.

Yet, 20 miles from here, an off-duty cop thwarted a major terrorist attack by gunning down two radical Islamists.

So please don’t tell me you have got a pat policy solution that’s going to make everything alright.

Then again, maybe the answer really is very simple:

Unless the Lord guards the city,
    the guard keeps watch in vain.  (Psalm 127)