Emphasis Preaching Journal

Jeremiah is concerned with false shepherds who fail in their duty -- the rulers and officials who failed to guide and lead the people, so that their lives would be safe and productive. A young man of 15 in a major midwestern city, with only $25 in his pocket, buys a used Remington semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun out of the back of a car. Later he hacks off two feet of the barrel so that it becomes the "weapon of choice" -- easy to hide, easy to aim. Gunshots cause an estimated one in four deaths among American teenagers. An estimated 100,000 students carry a gun to school.