A Wildwood spouter says that the way to respond to the carnage of gun violence is to "punish violence severely." Surely the proponents of "punish the criminal" are not suggesting that we should be content to allow more atrocities such as those at Aurora or Sandy Hook, and then, after the bloodshed, punish the perpetrator. Surely they don't think that we should accept more mass murders of innocent people, such as the massacre at Virginia Tech, and then punish the perpetrator. Because that approach to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. is a gross violation of Christian values.