GUN CONTROL: A CALL TO ACTION

Gun Control: It’s Time for the Church to Lead the Way

There are reportedly sixteen million AR-15 style assault rifles in the hands of American citizens, and the majority are white males over age 40. I do not know for sure, but my educated guess is that the great majority of these my fellow citizens profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. Some in Congress proudly wear AR-15 lapel pins, as if this was a symbol of patriotism and good citizenship.

Cartridges fired by these military grade assault weapons are designed to inflict maximum damage to the internal organs of those unfortunate souls on the receiving end. They literally cause organs to explode and bone structure to be so fragmented that emergency room doctors can do almost nothing to keep the patient alive.

Responsible gun owners need to recognize that it is not safe or healthy to live and work in a country where ordinary citizens have greater fire power than most police officers. In the military, such weapons are subject to secure storage and strict controls.

This week we have been horrified by yet another school shooting, with three elementary school students and three staff members at a private church school losing their lives at the hands of a troubled young former student who identified as transgender female. She had two assault rifles and a handgun when she shot her way into the school. At home, she had additional weapons, and she was known to be emotionally unstable. This time, police intervened in a timely manner and killed the shooter before she could reload and continue random killing. Far different from Uvalde, where police refused to enter the school and confront the shooter.

Listen: there are millions of troubled people in our country of over three hundred million souls. The times are very challenging for most of our fellow citizens. Most news is BAD. Fear and disinformation have us on the precipice of what could be a violent conflict between citizens of different political views. It is a miracle that we have not seen weekly mass casualties involving the slaughter of defenseless persons, including an entire generation of school students who are already on the ropes due to COVID restrictions on in person learning.

It is crystal clear that our Congress is not able or willing to legislate our way out of the current crisis. The most obvious course of action would be to ban the ownership, possession and use of military style assault weapons by private citizens, period. We actually tried that a few decades ago, and statistics showed that the numbers of mass casualties involving such weapons dropped.

I have a question for my Christian brothers and sisters. Do you value your rights to own assault weapons over the lives of the young children who are our future generation of leaders? Are you able to be at peace seeing the repeated school shootings where young bodies are so destroyed that identification of the victims is almost impossible?

Speaking for myself, as a retired career military officer and gun owner for over four decades, and most importantly, as a person who cares deeply about living to please Jesus Christ, I cannot imagine my needing or owning an AR-15 style weapon. It would not be needed for self defense of my wife and me, and I would be concerned that a burglary could place it in the hands of criminals. I am certain that my Lord is deeply distressed by the position that so many of His children in the United States have taken against responsible gun control.

But it is not too late. I call upon every person who professes to be a Christian to bow down and pray for wisdom as to how God would see our current situation. Ask yourself where in the New Testament do you see any evidence that Jesus would want His followers to be bearing military style assault weapons or opposing their ban. Have you allowed Fox News and allegiance to our former President to lure you into a form of Christian nationalism that is willing to secure its goals by any means necessary? Are you really willing to sit back and watch carnage on the scale we have witnessed to remain a fixture of American life and culture? It is time to choose sides, and to come over to God’s side.

Even if you have no belief in God, your basic humanity should speak to your heart on this issue. Are you worried that your government is going to come to your house and seize your weapons? That is the line of the NRA. Many if not most of our federal legislators fear the NRA. A century ago, believe it or not, the lobby group that most legislators feared the most was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. This is how we got prohibition. But eventually its power and hold over legislators waned. It could happen again with the NRA, if responsible gun owners decided to support reasonable gun control measures.

I call on all religious leaders in the country to lovingly teach their flocks how sacred Scripture applies to gun control issues, and honestly stimulate dialogue on the assault weapons issue. I would like to see a grassroots movement led by concerned citizens of faith to surrender all military style assault weapons and associated ammunition and cartridges to law enforcement authorities as an act of faith, good citizenship, patriotism and love of our fellow citizens. For those who want or need compensation for giving up their property, I suggest we adopt a system where official records are maintained of all such surrendered weapons and their value, and allow taxpayers a credit for such amount on their federal income tax returns.

Some of my Christian friends say that they need assault type weapons to defend their lives and property in case there is some major civil unrest. Really? How many people are you willing to kill in such an effort? For that matter, how many people have you already killed, for those who have served in the military or law enforcement? I respectfully submit that God does not want His people to be instruments of such carnage and He is horrified by what is happening to innocent people, including children in their schools, through the use of weapons that should only be in the hands of active military personnel or law enforcement officers.

Others of my friends say they must have assault weapons to use in the event our government goes completely off the rails, and we need a violent insurrection to overthrow our government. Again, I say that this is antithetical to Holy Scripture. We are called upon to pray for our political leaders and to constructively engage in civic undertakings, but we are no longer under the yoke of a foreign king or relying solely on local militias to defend our freedom. We have the most modern and capable military force structure in the world. They are sworn to defend and protect our Constitution and our freedoms. Are you worried about them turning against you? Do you trust God, or your AR-15? It cannot be both. You must choose.

At least at the federal level, military style assault weapons will never be banned until and unless the people elect a Congress that cares more about them than pleasing the NRA. But there is no need to wait on the next election. We the People can mount a grassroots movement that rolls over the Halls of Congress like a massive tidal wave. It can be catalyzed by people who profess to love God and desire to live in ways that please Him. People like you. Look at your children and grandchildren and ask yourself, are their lives and emotional wellness worth it?