My Drop In The Ocean Of Gun Control Posts

I get it.  No one wants to read another blog post about guns.  No one really wants to talk about them either, they just want to argue about them.  Like many people, I have friends on both sides of the debate - not just on gun control, but on many "hot topic" items like abortion, gay marriage, transgenderism and more - and I usually keep pretty quiet about them for fear of just pissing everyone off.

Many of my conservative friends think I'm a liberal and many of my liberal friends think I'm too conservative, depending on the issue.  Its tough being in the middle and seeing both sides of an issue.  There's an old Calvin and Hobbes comic that I often think of in cases like this:

On the one hand, I see the need for gun control.  The recent school shootings and what happened in Las Vegas show us that these weapons don't belong in the hands of civilians.  Second Amendment advocates point out that we need these kinds of weapons because "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" (!!)  We need these kinds of weapons in case we need to rise up against a corrupt government (or something).  My problem with this argument is that, in this day and age, if the government decided to run over you, a closet full of AK-47s isn't going to save you.  See Ruby Ridge and Waco.

Still, I don't advocate for the removal of all guns.  People use guns to hunt, and I'm not opposed to hunting (even though I never have).  While I get nearly all of my meat from the grocery store, my father-in-law goes hunting every year and I benefit from this because he shares the meat with us.   I recognize that a crazy person could walk into a school and start killing people just as easily with a hunting rifle as an automatic weapon and I don't know how to solve that problem.

I could go back and forth with the different arguments for an against gun control all day, but the entire issue for me boils down to this.  The world would be a better place if we didn't need guns to begin with.  I've heard all kinds of arguments against what I'm about to say, but the root truth of it is undeniable.

Guns are made to kill people with.

Thats the purpose of a gun.  Its not for "protection", unless your protection includes killing someone.  Its not for "target practice", unless you're trying to get better at killing someone.  Guns were made to be killing devices.  Now, we can use them for all sorts of things... shooting rats or cans or robbing banks, but the point is this - they were made to make killing easier.  You can kill someone with a hammer and you could probably use a gun to drive in a nail, but you wouldn't be using either tool for the purpose it was created for.

So what do we do? Get rid of them all?  Turn them into shovels?  Pragmatically, I can't see how thats possible.  If nothing else, our military needs these kinds of weapons.  I pray for the day when we don't, but we live in a fallen world where its necessary.  Just this morning, I heard that Putin was touting some new missiles that were "unstoppable".  I don't believe in war, I don't advocate killing for any reason, but I'm also very guilty of being the kind of person that Colonel Nathan Jessup criticizes in "A Few Good Men":

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.  I would rather that you just said "thank you" and went on your way.

I'm opposed to all war. To all violence, really. But, several of my ancestors served in the military.  There were Porters in the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812 and my uncle served during Vietnam.  My great-great-great grandfather served the Union in the Civil War.  My oldest son is currently serving.

I'm thankful for their service. But I still pray for the day it isn't necessary.

The thing that really gets me in this overall conversation is the amount of Christians who advocate for the right to own guns. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think you can be pro-life and pro-guns. The two just don't go together. You might be pro-birth, but life lasts until you die. Supporting the distribution of a tool created for the express purpose of killing is not supporting life. Neither is it loving your neighbor, the second most important commandment according to Jesus.

Some will point out where Jesus tells his followers to sell their cloaks and buy a sword. I would remind them of the one time that a disciple actually used a sword, he was sternly rebuked by Jesus and Jesus practiced what he preached - he loved his enemy and healed him.

I see nothing in Jesus' teachings that advocates violence, even in self defense. There's plenty of violence in the Bible, that's for sure, but it's also clear that in praying "thy kingdom come" we are also praying for a day when "they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore". (Isaiah 4:2) so maybe we will turn our assault rifles into shovels after all. I'd like to think that no matter what side of the debate we are on right now, that we will be a day we can all celebrate.