American Church Needs To Stand Up For Innocent Lives Lost By Firearms
My thoughts and my prayers are with those who suffered at the hands of the killer this weekend in Aurora Colorado. It is a senseless act of extreme violence that will impact not just the 12 families of those who were killed but also the 60 people and their families who were injured in the shooting.
As someone who lives outside of the USA it seems to make no sense what so ever that the gun laws in the USA are so relaxed. That there seems to be a mass shooting with regularity often in schools and universities and now in a movie theatre. My question to the State and Federal Government is when will you learn?
At what cost will you uphold the right to bear arms over the fact that thousands of men, woman, children are being senselessly killed year in, year out.
In 2010 there were 8,775 people were murdered through the use of firearms. Now I know that guns don’t kill people, people do. People who are evil, broken, dysfunctional or insane commit these acts. But there are 8,000 families who won’t see their father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter again because of the ease of access to firearms.
Not to mention the firearm suicides of approximately 13,000 per year.
In Australia we learnt the hard way. Many people were murdered at Port Arthur. The Federal government responded boldly by changing the gun laws to hold people to a higher standard if they wanted to own a firearm. Since the laws were changed deaths by firearms have halved. Here is what an author of a research report into the changes wrote:
The authors conclude that “The Australian example provides evidence that removing large numbers of firearms from a community can be associated with a sudden and on-going decline in mass shootings, and accelerating declines in total firearm-related deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides.”
The American church has a great challenge and opportunity before it. To take a leadership stand on helping the community and government understand why there is a need to change the gun laws and applying a sterner test to gun ownership.
Or the church can choose to remain silent and support the current level of access to guns, and watch as countless more thousands of innocent people die, year after year.
Hear me loud and clear here. I’m not suggesting that you remove your amendment right to bear arms. I’m suggesting that you make the test for a reasonable reason to own a firearm higher.
Friends speak the truth to each other. I love my friends who serve and are members in churches throughout the USA and support you wholeheartedly. This is your chance. Your moment to help make a difference that can change thousands of people’s lives and not be murdered by firearms.
This isn’t an amendment issue for the church. This is a justice issue. A severe injustice is committed every time someone loses their life through being murdered by a gun that is easy access to.
It’s not up to the church obviously to change gun law, but the church can influence the community that change is for the community good.
What are you going to do?
If you are in church leadership I’d like to hear your thoughts, even if you don’t agree with me. (everyone, keep your opinion it to the issue, don’t get personal otherwise I won’t post your comment.)
Nice piece Mate,
I’m somewhat inclined to agree with you, although I have some reservations. I’ve spent a lot of time in the US, and I have some very good and close friends there. I also have a special fondness for their history and foundations.
Having said that, I see some of the decisions that they make, that their church stands behind, that I simply can’t get my head around. I have accepted that this is because I don’t get the culture. The friends I speak of are good people, really good, compassionate people who I don’t just love , I really like them. Yet they will be outraged at healthcare for the poor or a change in the right to bear arms.??? Makes no sense to me, but as I said, good people.
I’m with you, I pray for those hurt by this tragedy and my heart goes out to them. I like your thinking, that we the church can be a voice in this world. After all we are called to be ambassadors.
Thanks for taking the time to pen this.
Thanks David, good to hear from you. I agree, most Americans I’ve met are the best people on earth. But I think sometimes when you are inside a culture you can’t see the bleeding obvious.
More so that it is obvious from the research here in Australia that gun laws can impact the death toll.
I’m sure we have many blind spots too.
Nice post, and I totally understand what you are saying, but the laws are not the issue here, in almost zero of these mass murder cases not any of the gunman were licensed to carry a firearm. Tougher gun laws will only serve to make the criminals who will never abide by the gun laws in the first place, stronger, because fewer and fewer law abiding citizens will own any firearm?
Not only do I not see this as the church’s responsibility, I don’t think tougher laws to legally own a firearm will keep anyone who wants to gain access to a gun for purposes of murdering someone, harder for them.
There are a lot of things the church can do, I just don’t see this as one of them… though I do understand what you are saying, I just don’t agree with the conclusions (at least for here in the American church).
Hey Scott,
Respectfully I disagree, the laws ARE the issue, check out what happened when we changed our laws here in Australia. We are proof that lawmaking does make an positive impact on the death toll from firearms.
I think the church can get vocal about other legal issues like abortion, slave trade, the sex trade, all of which were/are legal, then it can get involved in an issue like this.
Steve,
Thank You for your opinion. But, as you are apparently not completely aware of US history, there are some very deep seeded reasons for not changing the firearms laws in the US.
First, the reason the founders of our nation wrote the right to own these weapons into our Constitution goes back to the very first battle in our War for Independence. On April 18, 1775 British General Gage sent 700 men from Boston to seize colonial militia munitions stored at Concord, Massachusetts. These munitions were meant to protect citizens and property from Native American attacks. The British government was attempting to seize private property.
Second, to overturn an amendment to our Constitution takes a lot more time than just passing a law. To do so would require 67 percent approval in both houses of Congress, then approval by at least 38 of our 50 states. This just could not happen in the hyper-political time we have in the US right now.
Third, In areas where open or concealed carry of firearms is allowed, violent crime drops. All of the large scale incidents in recent years have been in places where the property owners or government has restricted carry of firearms, therefore causing the law-abiding citizens to be unarmed. There were licensed gun owners present at both the shooting of the Congresswoman and in the theater, but they were not “packing” to avoid breaking laws. It is also illegal to carry on public school campuses and on US military instillation, the sites of most other incidents. In several recent cases where firearms were available to the law-abiding, criminals were the only ones injured. YouTube has the surveillance footage of an attempted robbery the week before the Aurora incident, as well as an attempted jewelry heist just this week.
As for how the American Church reacts, many of us are seeing what appear to be attacks by those in national leadership on our freedom of religious thought and practice. Americans tend to distrust government in general. This leads back to the first reason I sited.
Thanks for commenting AJ.
I’m well aware of the deep seated nature of how guns are embedded in your culture. I’m very aware of the constitutional protection that they are afforded.
This issue goes beyond opinion and ‘rights’. If you look at the link to the research that was done here post the new gun laws you will see a massive decline in gun related deaths. The research has the final say from a logical point of view.
When the people only take the rights and not responsibility something has to change.
The rest is just subjective. All because something is difficult it doesn’t mean that the church shouldn’t stand up and step into the issue. Thousands of people will die this year, when they need not. Pointless. Senseless and tragic for your country’s future.
Steve,
Again, thanks for stating your opinion. I took a little time to reply as I wanted to do a little fact checking. While you are entirely correct that ‘gun related’ crimes have gone down in your nation, violent crime has skyrocketed since the firearms ban. Home invasions and rapes, two crimes that can be prevented by firearms in homes, have reached record levels. On the other hand, in my nation, places that allow carry of firearms tend to have lower levels of those two crimes than areas that do not.
Another thing to consider, your nation does not have land borders with others, thereby allowing it to be easier for your government to ensure less people illegally. If you were to live in an area near our southern border with Mexico, you would probably want to have a firearm to protect yourself.