Monday, January 14, 2013

Gun laws... a response to a friend

It's been a while since the shooting that has gun laws on the table again. That Connecticut school shooting wasn't the first and it won't be the last. There have been several public shootings in the weeks since that one, anyway. So my friend John wrote and asked me to respond to an editorial by a Canadian journalist on that shooting and gun laws. I did so and thought it might help someone to openly share my response, so here it is in full:

Hi John, nice to hear from you. We've both read the editorial you'd linked to and have a few thoughts... so since you asked: 
We are Christian before we are anything else, so as Christians, we believe the taking of human life is not right under any circumstance. However, governments do what they will and make laws for the protection of their citizens and the restraint of evil - and they do this by evil means. Governments maintain military and police whose job it is to carry weapons and restrain evil. Sometimes there is misuse power of this due to personal moral lack. For example, soldiers often kill civilians purposely in war zones and they are usually punished for this as it does not represent the government's wishes.
So we see that it is the heart of the individual that matters and no one can force another to have a heart change. No law or police force can obtain safety for people. There is no safety in this world, other than the solace we find in the bosom of our Lord. 
Let's say there were no guns that shot more than 5 bullets... so he carries 6 of them and kills the same number of people.
Let's say there were no guns that shot more than 5 bullets... so he killed people more slowly.
Let's say there were no guns... he could have killed them all another way. There is no end to this, because it is the heart of the person that is the problem, not any material thing. 
Neil, as a Canadian, is heavy on socialism and believes that laws are good things and the more, the better. His solution is to "take weapons of war away from people who aren't soldiers or police." Every gun is a weapon of war... knives, swords, javelins, discus, shot put... And really, the ubiquitous car takes far, far more lives in our societies than guns. And what else should they take away from people? 
So they'll make a law restricting some kind of gun and the public will be happy with the compromise. But it will be arbitrary, and no one's heart will change, and God will continue weeping.

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