This morning I led the beginning of a 5-week multi-generational Sunday School class on gun violence. I was asked by some leaders in the church to step up and be the facilitator for week 1. I really only agreed but instantly my mind went to the saddest funeral I've ever attended. A few years ago we lost a very amazing camp staff member to suicide and so I wanted to share that's how I've been touched by this topic.

The leading cause of death by guns is suicide and so while it doesn't fit right in with mass shootings and street crime this is still part of the equation. So I started the class off sharing that story (holding back tears) and for the next thirty minutes the crowd of people ages 7-80+ shared their families history with guns. The fun of hunting squirrels back in the day to one lady being in the middle of a bank robbery shoot out.

I don't know where the discussion will go over the following weeks but I really felt led to share my grief in attending that funeral and losing a wonderful young man. People really seemed to open up after that and it made for a great start to the series. In some small way I hope that this tragedy helped others to share some of their families experiences. My wife told me this was a little bit of a dark topic for my Scouting family but it's because this came from a camp staff members loss that I felt compelled to participate.

On eBay I have 222 live auctions with about 1/2 of those ending tonight. As you have seen the past few weeks this is almost exclusively neckerchiefs as I run through about a thousand that we sorted this spring.