Yesterday, tragedy unfolded at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.  A phone call to 9-1-1 was placed by a 2^nd grade teacher to report a shooting taking place after school.  After officers arrived, the shooter was located as well as the weapon that was also used to administer a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  A teacher and another student were pronounced dead at the scene while six others were injured.   

Joining Jim to discuss this rising trend was Dr. Richard Schmidt.  Dr. Schmidt is pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church, and founder of Prophecy Focus Ministries.  He’s the speaker on the weekly TV program, Prophecy Focus and the radio broadcast, Prophecy Unfolding.  He spent 32 years in law enforcement.  He was appointed to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s office in 1986, promoted to sergeant in 1996, to captain in 2002, to deputy inspector in 2003, to inspector of detention in 2006 and inspector senior commander in 2010 by then Sheriff David Clarke, Jr.  Sheriff Clarke resigned in 2017 and Rich assumed the role of acting sheriff.  Through his years of service he’s led the Police Services Bureau which included expressway patrol, criminal investigations and airport security.  He had oversight over the House of Corrections, the Courts Services Division, the Criminal Justice Facility, the Safety Building and the courts located at the Children’s Detention Center.

Dr. Schmidt began by noting something he learned from working with former Sheriff David Clarke.  It’s the idea that first facts are usually no facts at all.  In other words, the things that first come through the media are often wrong.  For example, it was originally reported that a second grade student was the one who called 9-1-1 when as noted earlier, it was a teacher that made the call.  

Dr. Schmidt indicated that a house has already been searched and everything that can be gleaned about the alleged shooter will be looked into.  Interviews with students, parents and teachers will need to take place along with other duties that make up a very time consuming investigation.  The idea is to avoid speculation and the spreading of false information. 

There’ve been 320 school shootings this year, so this broadcast looks not only at the public safety aspects but also the spiritual aspects of such tragedies by asking the following questions:

• How can schools and churches prepare for something like this?  
• Why are students bringing guns to school and what’s causing them to use such weapons against others? 
• Have we become so debased in our society that schools and churches need to consider taking drastic security measures?  
• Where does Scripture and biblical counseling factor into this?  

Dr. Schmidt looked at all of this and more, while callers expressed their questions and concerns as well, on this edition of Crosstalk.