Prayer and the gun issue in America

I have been aware of the topic of “prayer” as part of the recent battles here in America over gun control following the tragedy in the Connecticut school.  More than once I have seen a theme pop up in discussion that brings God into the equation.  Already the equation is packed to include mental illness, violent video games, the media and the NRA (National Rifle Association), and irresponsible gun owners with lots of finger pointing.   But now…God?  The stream of thought goes something like this:  if our state school systems had not banned God from ever being mentioned, perhaps this massacre would not have happened.  Really?  So, maybe God is unhappy and “fixing” all of us for taking God out.  Or maybe we think that our prayer (more in schools than any other place) can act as a sort of a metal shield or security device.  Or maybe if we prayed more, especially in school, God would protect us from harm.  I would agree that prayer certainly is important, but not without using the brains God gave us to do the necessary problem solving as well.  Prayer alone will not solve the problem.  The ridiculous conversation seems to me to point to a naïve, immature, superstitious spirituality that has nothing to do with the God I have come to know.  If prayer does “work” it means that those of us who believe in keeping a close relationship with God pay attention to what is happening right before us and ask God in prayer –both individually and as communities — for the courage and inspiration to get involved, yes, even and most especially to get involved politically to end the nonsense  that assault weapons have any place whatsoever in our neighborhoods.