I am ASTOUNDED at the glaring inconsistency of anyone claiming to follow Jesus and advocating the arming of people in our society with semi-automatic assault weapons. This is NOT of Christ.
Now, surely someone will say, "Yah, but what about when Jesus said to buy a sword (Luke 22:36)"?
Even the most staunch literalist must admit that Jesus did NOT advocate that they buy a BALLISTA or even a CROSSBOW that can kill many or some at a great distance. A sword was a weapon of defense against a very close threat. And Jesus also said, "All who take the sword will die by the sword (Matthew 26:52)."
Semi-automatic assault weapons were not created to hunt animals. They were not created to target shoot. They were not created to look good. They were CREATED to kill a person a second. As quickly as you can pull the trigger, you can kill someone with one of these, AT A DISTANCE! They were modified from their original purpose of killing MANY PEOPLE within seconds, to "only" killing a person a second. They were CREATED for military use. While I still believe that God's plan is to "turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks", I understand the need for professional soldiers to have the standard issue of the day on the battlefield. These weapons of mass destruction do NOT belong in the hands of untrained citizens - ANY of them.
With the horrible murder of 20 children by someone barely over the age of a child, along with his mother and 6 teaching professionals, the nation is finally taking a serious look at assault weapons and why anyone should be able to have them. It was a tipping point, especially after so many other mass shootings in recent history. It is about time.
Now, the insecure and fearful, the aggressive and those who love abuses of power in violence are becoming more vocal about the "right" to own these weapons that have ONE PURPOSE. When they are not trying to convince people that the ownership of guns is mainstream and harmless, they are screaming about their "rights" and "need" to have these weapons for protection and the protection of their liberty (even if that means picking up such arms against their own government, given the right circumstances). They are not rational. They are not compassionate. They are certainly not moral or ethical. They CANNOT be followers of Jesus while doing this. I question their emotional and mental stability in their IRRATIONAL DESIRE to have such implements of death close to them, and in their INSISTENCE that the nation preserve those rights over the safety and well-being of the rest of society. I believe they are unstable and precisely the ones who should never be allowed to own such implements of death.
If you want to own a rifle for shotgun for hunting. Please seek screening and proper licensure and get one after proper training. If you want a revolver for target shooting and, yes, protection of your household, please do the same. We do not allow the legal purchase of hand grenades or rocket launchers, however, and implements of death designed to kill a person a second at great distances, with large ammunition capacities should not be a value in our society, and certainly not a commodity.
We had a period in our history during which practically everyone on the street had a handgun and/or rifle, and carried them. We replaced that with LAW and Law Enforcement, because it dawned on us that it was not safe and we actually GREW to a greater height of development as a society. Now, those less developed among us, less civilized and less considerate of others would have us return to that age. It is clearly an ethical, moral, intellectual, spiritual and societal regression.
The gun nuts will blame child-rearing, homosexuals, gambling, those who advocate a separation of church and state, having a black President, "those people" who might come and kill me, liberals, other things they consider to be "immoral" and anything else (except global warming) for the trend of largely young, white, suburban or small town males picking up weapons of mass destruction and using them in the way they were intended to be used among our citizenry, but the truth is...
We are a morally corrupt society because we value violence as a means to our desired ends, teach the lust for power that "superiority" in strength or fire power can get one, a belief that my individual rights trump the good and/or safety and well-being of anyone else or all others if need be, and a belief that if I am afraid, I am justified in hurting anyone out of that fear. We raise our children to be fascinated with weapons and we teach them well to look out for number one above all. These are NOT Kingdom Values, according to Jesus.
To WANT to own one of these weapons of mass destruction puts us at odds with our Creator, our society and our neighbor. It is simply IMMORAL.
The rest of us who want a more just, civil and gentle society had better stand and be counted NOW, while the conversation is going on, because with each one of these tragedies, we behold our future if we succumb to the irrational and violent hearted among us, and allow this insanity to escalate. We need to say "NO!" to the fear-mongers and self-preservationists and NOT allow the further creation of an IMMORAL society of violence, built on fear and hatred.
Read, learn, pray, speak, write and act for a less violent society.
Pastor Jamie
