I asked a group of our SHA kids how many had armed guards in their schools. About 75%—80% of their hands went up. Several more knew a school near them where a shooting had happened; and, one student had a shooting take place in the very school she attended. I can jog to a school from where we sit right now that had a shooting just a couple of years ago. And, in the late 90s, I went to church with a family, who’s kid would play all kinds of crazy music in our church parking lot after almost every service. About a year later this kid went on a shooting rampage in our small town, killing at least one person, shooting it out with police and then leading a police-chase all the way to the Florida line--about a 300-mile trek. And, when they caught him, I was watching him being arrested by Florida police on my TV screen in little Martin, GA.

Col. Dave Grossman is a US Army Ranger, a paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor. He has a Black Belt in Hojutsu, the martial art of the firearm, and has been inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Col. Grossman’s research was cited by the President of the United States in a national address, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, and numerous state legislatures. Since his retirement from the US Army in 1998, he has been on the road almost 300 days a year, for over 19 years, as one of our nation’s leading trainers for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations.

The Missing Link in Teen Violence

Col. Dave Grossman recently released a book entitled Assassination Generation, which he presented to the President and Senators during a meeting following the Parkland shooting. He also has several other books, including New York Best Sellers that have yet to have a single review. So why is that? The media certainly filters out the information that doesn’t match with their own agenda. One thing they are all invested in is that anything harmful can come through media. The violent stories, imagery and video games are said to have no impact on our society. The commercials are worth billions of dollars!

But Psalms 11 says God hates lovers of violence. Very rarely does the Bible discuss God hating. We need to take that very seriously. If we as parents love violent tv shows and movies, how do we train our children to love the things that God loves? Who do we really worship and who have we given our children to?

Another adverse effect that we aren’t discussing as a culture is sleep deprivation. It’s an epidemic across our entire civilization. In fact, one of the results of sleep deprivation can include schizophrenic episodes. Hallucinations can also occur after three days without sleep. Sleep deprivation appears to be the greatest predictor of suicide in our kids. In the military, suicides occur due to sleep deprivation, not combat. A non-combat vet is just as likely to commit suicide as a combat vet. Sleep deprivation is the missing link. In fact, a sleep-deprived person can be up to 5 times more likely to take their life. 18 hours without sleep and your impaired judgment are equal to .08 legally drunk. 24 hours your impaired judgment is equal to .10 legally drunk. Two nights without sleep and you are psychotic.

When you send your kid to bed at night, take their cell phones! No laptop in their room. When they go to their bedroom they need to sleep. The texts and the images that are sent to your child’s phone at all hours can’t just be “turned off” in their minds if the phone is in the room. They will be up all hours of the night trying to defend themselves, finding someone to stand with them. If we as parents can’t ignore that text message in the middle of the night, how do we expect our kids to?

I spoke to a parent who had a daughter, straight-A student and very smart who told him “you can trust me to have my phone.” So he did. Not long after, his daughter committed suicide.