Guns
Nothing much made me think of this, it's just one of my favorite topics. Guns are cool. Looked at objectively, there's really nothing particularly cool about them, but then, cool is pretty much a subjective thing. I mean, why is a Ferrari cool? It only holds two people (not very confortably at that), and it's extremely rare that anyone can put such a car's power to use. Yet men and women drool over these machines. Anyway, back to the point - guns.
Guns are actually much more practical than Ferrari's, and are, on average, cheaper. I will always remember my wife's jaw dropping when I told her about the Beretta double-guns my dad and I looked at in New York, some of which cost around $100,000. I don't own any six-figure guns, though I do own one that runs about $1,000. Actually, I can't imagine owning such a thing, I'd be afraid to use it.
Among my collection are a couple of handguns, a few rifles, and a number of shotguns. Mostly, I shoot shotguns. Whether for home-defense, target shooting, or hunting, I am most comfortable with a scattergun in my hands. I'm getting there with the handguns, but the big rifles are still a challenge to me. In any event, I have been around guns all my life and have been shooting them in some fashion since I was about 5. Therefore, I find it very difficult to relate to people who fear guns. Allow me to explain, if I may.
A gun is a tool. How many times has a hammer jumped up on its own and smashed you on your thumb? Similarly, I have never had a gun just up and decide to shoot itself. This is not to say that I have never had a gun discharge unintentionally. I have experienced several unintentional discharges over my life, and all of them were caused by my failure to observe some safe-handling rule. Usually, it was the rule to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to pull it. Nothing came of these incidents, however, because I did not fail to follow the second most important (after "Every gun is a loaded gun.") rule: "Always keep you gun pointed in a safe direction." Thus, my accidental discharges shot air, a tree branch, and a couple of patches of dirt.
I've done the scariest thing anyone can do with a gun - shoot it without meaning to. Yet I have no fear of guns. Why? Because I know, with absolute certainty, that those guns did not fire by themselves. I fired them, though unintentionally, and they would not have fired absent my intervention. I am aware of a gun firing without anything touching the trigger - it was my mother's gun - but again, it was pointed at the sky, so no injury resulted. The fact is, that if everyone treated every gun as if it were loaded and no one ever pointed a gun at anything they were concerned about damaging or destroying, there would never be any unintentional harm caused by guns. Criminals would still use guns, to be sure, but criminals use guns all over the world, even in countries where gun ownership is illegal - that's why we call them criminals.
As many have heard many times, the 2nd Amendmend guarantees the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms. In recent years there has been a trend among state governments to allow or extend the right of citizens to carry concealed handguns. I hold a permit in Tennessee, and frequently carry. In truth, I should carry all the time - how can I possibly predict when I will need my gun? If I knew I was going to be mugged, I would avoid the situation, but since no one has invented forward-looking goggles yet, I have to live by the Boy Scout (or Coast Guard, as you prefer) motto "Semper Paratus" (Always Prepared). Whether I am carrying or not, it would certainly be a bad move to invade my home, where buckshot will be vying with 9mm and .357 rounds to repulse such an invasion.
Some will look at my statement of purpose, where I claim to be a Christian, and say that by arming myself and being prepared to do harm to those who would harm me or my family, I am being hypocritical. I disagree, but then, you would expect that, wouldn't you? So, from a biblical, Christian perspective, what justification is there for carrying a gun and being willing to use it?
I think primarily, there is the theme that runs through the Bible, from beginning to end, of the "father," whether talking about our Heavenly Father or an earthly father, protecting His/his family. Christianity is, whether the Episcopal Church likes it or not, a patriarchal religion. This is clearly a side issue, but I will say that I don't believe the Bible teaches that women are inferior or incapable or anything like that, but Christian society is centered on the headship of the "Father."
More specifically, Ephesians 5 makes clear that men are not to lord over or dominate their wives, but also that men are called to be the leaders of their families:
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body.
That's a bit off the topic of guns, but it is on point with regard to men being responsible for their families. Closer to the topic of guns themselves, the Old Testament is replete with instances of God ordering the Israelites to destroy their enemies, even to the point of slaughtering women and children. So let's not delude ourselves with images of gentle Jesus petting the lambs. While God certainly does love us, His creation, he is also a just and jealous God. The heaven/hell dichotomy is not just an alegory - those who are not saved are damned. The point is that there are plenty of instances of the righteous use of deadly force in the Bible - I can't think of anywhere that the Bible forbids self-defense.
Some will point to the passage where Jesus rebukes Peter for cutting off the man's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane as proof that Christians should not engage in physical self-defense. However, the problem with Peter's actions was his attack - Jesus did not object to Peter carrying a sword, He objected to Peter's use of the sword - Peter was attempting to interfe with what MUST happen. Jesus HAD to be arrested, He HAD to be tried on trumped-up charges, and ultimately, He HAD to die. Therefore, Peter's actions served no purpose but to injure the object of his attack.
Similarly, some will point to Jesus' admonition to "turn the other cheek." This passage it seems to me, is used out of context. When Jesus makes this statement, He is preaching generally about how we are to respond to our fellow men and how love should permeate all our dealings with our fellow men. The point is that we should not take a legalistic view of human interaction and expect justice in all things, for if we demand justice, we are really asking for God to do justice on us, which would be very much to our detriment. Jesus is exhorting us to me merciful and forgiving, as God is with us. I find it hard to believe, and unsupported by the text, that Jesus is telling us we should allow criminals to have their way with us and our families.
I am posting this, even though it probably warrants some revision. But I'm tired of working on it - I think this is actually the second post I started writing.
Guns are actually much more practical than Ferrari's, and are, on average, cheaper. I will always remember my wife's jaw dropping when I told her about the Beretta double-guns my dad and I looked at in New York, some of which cost around $100,000. I don't own any six-figure guns, though I do own one that runs about $1,000. Actually, I can't imagine owning such a thing, I'd be afraid to use it.
Among my collection are a couple of handguns, a few rifles, and a number of shotguns. Mostly, I shoot shotguns. Whether for home-defense, target shooting, or hunting, I am most comfortable with a scattergun in my hands. I'm getting there with the handguns, but the big rifles are still a challenge to me. In any event, I have been around guns all my life and have been shooting them in some fashion since I was about 5. Therefore, I find it very difficult to relate to people who fear guns. Allow me to explain, if I may.
A gun is a tool. How many times has a hammer jumped up on its own and smashed you on your thumb? Similarly, I have never had a gun just up and decide to shoot itself. This is not to say that I have never had a gun discharge unintentionally. I have experienced several unintentional discharges over my life, and all of them were caused by my failure to observe some safe-handling rule. Usually, it was the rule to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to pull it. Nothing came of these incidents, however, because I did not fail to follow the second most important (after "Every gun is a loaded gun.") rule: "Always keep you gun pointed in a safe direction." Thus, my accidental discharges shot air, a tree branch, and a couple of patches of dirt.
I've done the scariest thing anyone can do with a gun - shoot it without meaning to. Yet I have no fear of guns. Why? Because I know, with absolute certainty, that those guns did not fire by themselves. I fired them, though unintentionally, and they would not have fired absent my intervention. I am aware of a gun firing without anything touching the trigger - it was my mother's gun - but again, it was pointed at the sky, so no injury resulted. The fact is, that if everyone treated every gun as if it were loaded and no one ever pointed a gun at anything they were concerned about damaging or destroying, there would never be any unintentional harm caused by guns. Criminals would still use guns, to be sure, but criminals use guns all over the world, even in countries where gun ownership is illegal - that's why we call them criminals.
As many have heard many times, the 2nd Amendmend guarantees the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms. In recent years there has been a trend among state governments to allow or extend the right of citizens to carry concealed handguns. I hold a permit in Tennessee, and frequently carry. In truth, I should carry all the time - how can I possibly predict when I will need my gun? If I knew I was going to be mugged, I would avoid the situation, but since no one has invented forward-looking goggles yet, I have to live by the Boy Scout (or Coast Guard, as you prefer) motto "Semper Paratus" (Always Prepared). Whether I am carrying or not, it would certainly be a bad move to invade my home, where buckshot will be vying with 9mm and .357 rounds to repulse such an invasion.
Some will look at my statement of purpose, where I claim to be a Christian, and say that by arming myself and being prepared to do harm to those who would harm me or my family, I am being hypocritical. I disagree, but then, you would expect that, wouldn't you? So, from a biblical, Christian perspective, what justification is there for carrying a gun and being willing to use it?
I think primarily, there is the theme that runs through the Bible, from beginning to end, of the "father," whether talking about our Heavenly Father or an earthly father, protecting His/his family. Christianity is, whether the Episcopal Church likes it or not, a patriarchal religion. This is clearly a side issue, but I will say that I don't believe the Bible teaches that women are inferior or incapable or anything like that, but Christian society is centered on the headship of the "Father."
More specifically, Ephesians 5 makes clear that men are not to lord over or dominate their wives, but also that men are called to be the leaders of their families:
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body.
That's a bit off the topic of guns, but it is on point with regard to men being responsible for their families. Closer to the topic of guns themselves, the Old Testament is replete with instances of God ordering the Israelites to destroy their enemies, even to the point of slaughtering women and children. So let's not delude ourselves with images of gentle Jesus petting the lambs. While God certainly does love us, His creation, he is also a just and jealous God. The heaven/hell dichotomy is not just an alegory - those who are not saved are damned. The point is that there are plenty of instances of the righteous use of deadly force in the Bible - I can't think of anywhere that the Bible forbids self-defense.
Some will point to the passage where Jesus rebukes Peter for cutting off the man's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane as proof that Christians should not engage in physical self-defense. However, the problem with Peter's actions was his attack - Jesus did not object to Peter carrying a sword, He objected to Peter's use of the sword - Peter was attempting to interfe with what MUST happen. Jesus HAD to be arrested, He HAD to be tried on trumped-up charges, and ultimately, He HAD to die. Therefore, Peter's actions served no purpose but to injure the object of his attack.
Similarly, some will point to Jesus' admonition to "turn the other cheek." This passage it seems to me, is used out of context. When Jesus makes this statement, He is preaching generally about how we are to respond to our fellow men and how love should permeate all our dealings with our fellow men. The point is that we should not take a legalistic view of human interaction and expect justice in all things, for if we demand justice, we are really asking for God to do justice on us, which would be very much to our detriment. Jesus is exhorting us to me merciful and forgiving, as God is with us. I find it hard to believe, and unsupported by the text, that Jesus is telling us we should allow criminals to have their way with us and our families.
I am posting this, even though it probably warrants some revision. But I'm tired of working on it - I think this is actually the second post I started writing.
posted by LawDog84 | 2:48 PM
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