Sightings Articles

empty classroom with chairs

gun violence | gun legislation | political partisanship

Thoughts and Prayers

As inhabitants of the only country in the world where school shootings are routine, the American faithful must not pray for serenity, but for courage....

June 8, 2022

gun violence

Are Calls for Policy Change the New #ThoughtsAndPrayers?

“Lockdown.” To a parent, perhaps no word induces more panic. Last Wednesday (May 22), I received a text alert that my son’s elementary school was going on lockdown. A second alert from the University of Chicago Office of Safety and Security advised a...

May 30, 2019

Islamophobia | gun violence | hope | climate change | suicide

Defiant Hope

Ed. Note: Today's column is the third in a three-part series by Divinity School faculty reflecting on the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand during Friday Prayer on March 15, 2019. Last Monday, Richard Rosengarten wrote about the challenges...

March 25, 2019

Islamophobia | terrorism | Islam | white supremacy | gun violence | Sigmund Freud

OMG

“Oh, my God.”...

March 18, 2019

gun violence | Judaism | Holocaust

Tree of Life

A man may not go out with a sword [on Shabbat], nor with a bow, nor with a shield, nor with a round shield, nor with a spear. If he has gone out [with any of these] he is liable for a sin offering. Rabbi Eliezer says: They are ornaments for him. Bu...

November 1, 2018

Civil Rights | gun violence | protests

Protesting Children

“How Young Is Too Young for Protest?”—an article by Stephanie Saul and Anemona Hartocollis in the New York Times published the day before the March 14 protest marches against gun violence in a great number of American high schools—posed questions whi...

March 19, 2018

culture wars | gun legislation | gun violence

Souls and the Guns of America

“Guns and the Soul of America” is the title of an important recent column by David Brooks (The New York Times, October 6th). Sightings writers do not claim to be experts on guns, but something or other about “souls” shows up in most of our semiweekly...

October 9, 2017

epidemic | contagion | gun violence | Second Amendment | gun lobby | gun legislation

Epidemic as Metaphor: Meaning and Morality in Our Narratives of Gun Violence

Much could be written, has been written, and still needs to be written about gun violence, the Second Amendment, responsible gun ownership, the gun lobby, and politicians. But here—for a moment—I want to pause and consider two metaphors that are beco...

December 31, 2015