A recent onslaught of “thoughts and prayers” traveled through the universe to the victims of last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas from devout followers of Christ. Much like every other tragedy since the rise of social media these good graces and well-intended messages often appear in masses and then slowly start to dissipate as time goes on and people all over the nation return to their day-to-day lives. The victims and their families are often left unchanged and unhealed. This lack of action isn’t a bad thing on its own, but eventually a second trend begins to appear; fighting in support or disfavor of gun control. Sometimes I see both trends appear in the same individuals and it has always baffled me how anyone who declares themselves a follower of Christ can switch from offering a prayer for victims to defending the very means that killed those individuals in the first place. One must ask, can Christians ethically support the second amendment?
So far, politicians, theologians, and simple minds have all debated the issue of gun control and religious leaders have offered support of change and kindness in the past but unlike other political debates the religious aspect has been taken out of the conversation. This may be because the bible doesn’t have any information on guns as it was written long before any such invention. However, the bible does speak about wars, weapons and battle as all part of the consequences of living in a fallen world. In Luke 10:30 it speaks about robbers being common in Israel and that many people do carry weapons in self-defense. However, Christians are also told to submit to governing authorities which would apply to gun laws too. Freedom and morality are two topics that often come up in religious debates and both are important to the debate of gun laws as well. The freedom to have a gun is protected by the second amendment, though it was written when guns were very different, and to this day people still cite the constitution as their ultimatum in the debate, however, there is also the concern of safety that, although is not a constitutional right, is a concept that most civilized societies would agree is important. The morality of the situation is begged when questioning whether another person’s “right” is putting others at risk. Both “freedom” and “morality” are things I would like to consider. First, many quotes are often attributed to Christians. Quotes like, “turn the other cheek,” “live by the sword, die by the sword,” and “god’s will be done.” Many gun owners say that they keep their guns for self-defense which is a response I would expect from a non-Christian. For Christians to use this excuse, they are openly defying some the basic teachings of their religion. If someone was to threaten a Christian with a gun, they should be willing to turn away and forgive their attacker. To be so fearful of death that one must carry a weapon at all times is proof that one does not believe in god’s will. Returning to God when he chooses, how he chooses, is the greatest thing a Christian can do, especially knowing that they didn’t openly harm one of God’s children in the process. So, other than self-defense, why else does one need a gun? Hunting? Entertainment? Committing crimes? Compensating for a small dick? The question remains. Yes, hunting and entertainment are reasons that I feel are valid. I don’t believe we should take away guns but we should limit the ways that people can use the guns. By allowing individuals to only have so many guns and so much ammunition are ways that could prevent stockpiling and harming multiple people. There will never be a way to stop people from killing but we can limit the amount of people killed and the effectiveness. There are a lot of ideas about how this can be affected and that debate is for professionals at another time, but any effort to get rid of military style weapons and ways to convert legal weapons into assault rifles is a step forward. At what point do we put our own wants, the want to have a gun, aside for the betterment of the world. Yes, criminals may be able to get weapons but god doesn’t fight the same way as the devil. For his followers to be so blindly influenced by worldly possessions, by weapons, truly shows how far we have come from God’s graces.
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Erick L. Graham Wood
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