News item, 2/11/13: gunman kills two women in courthouse despite presence of armed police and security check points.
Tim item: no place is safe – courthouses, schools, wherever – no matter how many guns we put in the hands of those put in place to protect us.
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Gun Debate Done Right
Jonalyn Fincher over at Ruby Slippers had a very worthy firearm debate going on over a three day period a short time ago. (Here’s part one, part two and part three.) She took the pro gun ownership side while Seth Dowland from Pacific Lutheran University took the other. Much of the discussion had to do with the utility (or lack of utility) of firearms, and the comments in particular also went into Second Amendment rights of gun ownership. That series is a model for how Christians can come together to discuss major issues in our society.
Gun Advocacy Done Wrong
I was driving along the other day when I pulled up behind a pickup truck. It had one of those see-through decal graphics that covered the entire rear window. The decal displayed a huge handgun that had just been fired, but instead of a bullet as a projectile it had an awfully fierce looking dove coming out the barrel. Below the dove it read “Blessed are the peacemakers – Matthew 5:9″.
You know, if we’re going to arm ourselves in order to keep the peace, I want something bigger than a handgun. In fact, the Second Amendment itself says it is based on the need for a well regulated militia, so I want to arm myself with the weapons of war. That’ll keep the peace all right.
So instead of a handgun, I want a tank. In fact, I want a tank battalion. And I want a squadron of fighter jets. A fully equipped air craft carrier complete with a nuclear arsenal would be nice too. After all, a militia fights battles and those are the types of weaponry that wins battles.
Some people say that nowadays wars are fought in closer quarters, though, and a battalion of tanks wouldn’t be as much good. OK, how about I get to own a crate of hand grenades? Nope, not allowed. Automatic rifles? Nope, ditto. Anything that might actually work in a militia style battle: RPGs, SAMs, IEDs? Nope, nope, nope.
It’s probably just as well. I don’t think I can swing the financing for an aircraft carrier anyway.
The Kingdom Way of Weaponry
He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (Micah 4:3.)
Amen.
And until that day comes, here’s one thing I think we all know: fewer weapons everywhere means fewer weapons that can end up in the hands of those who want to hurt people. I’d much rather see us pursue that.
I’m too tempted to defer my political opinions to a guy who knows what he’s talking about, so maybe I should stop reading your blog, Tim! This is an interesting topic – my friends from Australia are very pro-gun control, as they’ve seen the banishing of guns take the toll of violence down dramatically in their country. My question is – is it really possible to regulate that kind of legislation in a country with regular illegal immigration and millions of people with lots of power and immediate access to the rest of the world? It seems gun control would have the same effect as drug control – a great business move for those who don’t mind breaking the law.
On the other hand, Nick, I haven’t read of a connection between guns and immigration, at least not regarding the millions of people who cross the border to work in the fields, factories and homes of America. If you’re talking about illegal gun-running, that seems to happen even across more secure borders than ours.
Yeah – but I suppose that’s because there’s no need for it, now. The point is that we have access to the world – it seems unlikely that we could prevent ‘gun-smuggling’ from becoming its own illegal enterprise. Then everyone but innocents have guns in hand, which doesn’t seem ideal to me.
What about reducing the number of guns overall, so that there are fewer for the bad guys to get their hands on? Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Not so sure.
A friend and I once wrote a satire of the Beatitudes, which we called the Bad-atitudes. One of them was, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall never be out of a job.”
If you figure out the financing on the tank, please let me know how it’s done. The way people drive around here, I’d love to have a tank, or maybe a nice armoured personnel carrier . . .
What about a jet-pak? Then you don’t need to worry about parking.
That could work—nice and compact. I like it. As a science fiction fan, I used to fume about “We should have flying cars by now! Where are the flying cars?” Until I remembered how some maniacs drive on the ground and thought, “No, maybe not, bad idea, never mind . . .”
Smile!!
Can you remember the rest of your Bad-atitudes, Mary Anne? (Did any of them have to do with the cheesemakers?) Inquiring minds want to know.
Well, or any manufacturers of dairy products.
They were part of a larger satire we had written about The Sermon on the Mount (ours = Sermon on the Molehill). Some other bits I remember and quote to this day are, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall probably not stone me later” and “Neither doth a man light a candle and place it beneath a bushel, for bushels are both flammable and expensive.” I’ll have to see if I can dig out the rest for you.
And by all means, blessed are the cheesemakers. I love the stuff so much I’ve been accused of having mouse DNA . . . ;-9
I tend to think we are taking guns out of the hands of the law-abiding citizens more than the intended criminals. I saw a funny cartoon where a robber was about to go in, armed, to commit a bank robbery until he saw the “no fire arms allowed” sign. He hung his head and walked away
I look forward to that day when we will not need to train for war anymore.
And my husband would never take the risk of me trying to navigate a tank into the garage. We have an ongoing battle about how “one day” I’m going to bang the side-view mirrors of the Traverse on the garage doors. He’s prolly right.
I tend to agree with you, Aimee. It’s a matter of reducing firearms numbers overall that will lead to fewer criminals having them.
And tell Matt that one doesn’t park tanks in garages. One parks them in armories. Get him to build you one of those. Problem solved. Just a little extra service I provide here.
I’ll be happy when we finally get the basement finished, Tim.
Why, is it tank sized?
“Tim item: no place is safe – courthouses, schools, wherever – no matter how many guns we put in the hands of those put in place to protect us.’
Ya know, I have been thinking a LOT about this recently. We live in a great school district, so it would perhaps make sense to send our children to the school here so I can work (this is probably what will have to happen anyways, as long as we live in a nice district). But with all the shootings, I am so afraid. Sometimes I want to homeschool my children so we can be “safe” all the time — so I can be with them all the time. I know that ultimately they are in God’s hands and HE is the one who keeps them safe, NOT me, but it’s sincerely hard to look at all the news these days and think about sending them out there on their own.
Or sending them to a friend’s birthday party at the park, or with their grandparents for a special lunchtime, or leaving them in the church nursery while we go down the walkway to the sanctuary. It’s all a risk, and no mistake, Rachel. Then again, it’s all wonderfully in God’s hands and covered with his eternal blessings. He loves his own like no other.