Wednesday, February 21, 2018

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.”  (Habakkuk 1:3  NIV)

                I grew up with guns in the house. My Dad was a deer hunter and he used  a powerful 30.06 rifle when he went hunting up near Bancroft.  My brother had a 22 rifle.  He claims that he almost accidently shot me once when he didn’t know the rifle was still loaded and it went off accidently (so he says…) but I have absolutely no recall of the incident. As for me I had a BB rifle and a pellet pistol. None of the guns were kept particularly under lock and key if I remember rightly.

                I have never been much of a hunter – scared a few pigeons on my grandparent’s farm now and then, occasionally caused the odd squirrel to have a good chuckle and chatter at my poor aim, or wasted my ammunition on a tin can or two. But nothing serious. I am not opposed to hunting – I just have chosen not to do it. In fact, I love venison, rabbit and other wild dishes.

                But I do not get why anyone – even the most avid gun lover – needs an assault rifle like an AK 17 that was used in the Florida school shootings. The name says it all – assault rifle. Its rapid fire is designed for maximum violence and instant death. It’s a nasty weapon designed primarily for military use. It is not meant for sport hunting and I would hotly debate neither for any kind of recreational target shooting. But I guess there are people who get a thrill out of the power and feeling of invulnerability such a weapon appears to bestow on the one wielding it.

                Nor do I really understand the American reluctance to have even the most common-sense levels of some sort of gun control. I was not happy when our last government removed some of the restrictions on guns in Canada. The argument that ‘guns don’t kill but people do’ is nonsense. It is people armed with guns - big, nasty guns – that kill, murder and slaughter innocent people, especially children and youth.

                I just read where an Australian pastor has posted these words on their church sign: When will they love their kids more than their guns. Susan told me a story she heard about a Florida man who had an assault rifle and loved shooting it but after the Florida massacre he destroyed the weapon. But he will be an exception, not the beginning of a landslide movement to restrict them altogether. Note, just a few days after this tragedy the Florida legislature has nixed a bill restricting assault rifles.

                According to Bible standards there is no greater sign of a sick world than violence. I say that realizing that there is a lot of violence, bloodshed and carnage in many of the stories of the Bible. Even genocide. It is not a pretty picture especially when God is invoked as being the reason behind such violence. Yet, even so, violence is portrayed as an ugly scar on the beauty and sacredness of all Creation. These stories, at least, should make us wince and decry the use of violence as a means to an end.  

                There is a thread in scriptures that also celebrates God’s desire to “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4). Or maybe it should read assault rifles. In God’s Kingdom, under his rule “There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.” (Psalm 76: 3).

                Of course, the vast, vast majority of responsible gun owners would never ever use their rifles for violence against others.  But it only takes a few to do what was done in Florida or in Las Vegas earlier.  Limit and restrict those people who should not have access to guns, do background checks, register, at least,  the big  nasty guns – these are a few ways that we can keep our children safe.

                We need to commit to, pray for and advocate for whatever it takes to bring peace to this hurting world ours, and in the likeness of Jesus Christ, “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:79)

Dale