Recently, yet another horrible mass shooting incident took place at a school, this time in Uvalde, Texas. Last I heard, 21 people are dead, including the shooter himself. Not long before, another similar incident occurred, this time at a shopping mall in Buffalo, New York. Prior to 1999, these sorts of events were rare. Recently at my church, our pastor led us in a mass congregational prayer, praying for all of the victims families and community shaken by this event.
However, what got my attention was Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr — also a former number of the 90s Chicago Bulls in their championship era — emphatically decrying the event as an urgent need for immediate gun control. Because, in his argument, severe gun control is what it must take to stop these events, and that the federal government should immediately enact sweeping changes to all laws related to gun use, and that we all had better get on board with the idea.
I disagree.
Not to tangent off to a completely different issue altogether, someone I know recently remarked — and rather astutely, at that — that the only reason why Americans haven’t been completely bullied into submission regarding masks, lockdowns, and especially the vaccines, is “because of those darn guns.” That’s right, unlike other countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, among so many others, our respective layers of government, along with other “authoritative bodies”, were not able to force people into fear and submission regarding masking, quarantining, and receiving not only the vaccinations but also the boosters, all in the name of “eradicating COVID-19.”
So all they can do is resort to blaming us, because some of us own guns.
Prior to getting saved, and especially prior to my philosophical/political shift two years ago, I myself didn’t quite understand the correlation between the Second Amendment and the Bible being the inerrant Word of God. The reason why that thought process even came up in the first place, was that, when I was in college I met for the first time people that held both things to be true. Not only so, but that such persons held both things to be vitally true.
The truth is that there is no such correlation. When the Bible was written, guns hadn’t been invented yet. The primary weaponry mentioned was the sword. Even the apostle Paul, when he wrote about putting on the full armor of God, talked about the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), and not the revolver of the Spirit or the rifle of the Spirit.
However, the Bible mentions various times in the Israelites’ history, where having a sword on one’s person was necessary. One such example came while Nehemiah was leading the massive project of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem post-exile. Because of numerous individuals who sought to harm the Israelites so as to stop the rebuilding project, he had instructed his builders to have a sword with them even as they were building. (Nehemiah 4:13-17)
Similarly, the citizens’ right to bear arms may not have appeared to make sense to a lot of people for a long time. But in this era, more and more nations are working together to force the populace into fear, with the goal of complete submission and trust that whatever they say is “the right thing“ and “in our best interests“. And now, in our own country, it is becoming more and more unpopular for any person to have the freedom to think for themselves — let alone speak their mind freely — especially if it goes against a certain agenda.
A third tangent, off the point I just made: I have an acquaintance who recently got fired from his job at a restaurant in Chicago for saying to a customer: “Jesus is my moral compass.“ The customer complained to the management, and the management subsequently fired my acquaintance on the spot. And my acquaintance is getting counsel from a few mutual friends not to sue. Personally, I am conflicted on it. First, I know it is not my decision, and I am believing and praying that my acquaintance will come to the decision that God leads him to make, regarding whether or not to sue his employer for wrongful firing based on religious discrimination. But something is not right in my spirit with the mutual friends not just unanimously but also emphatically advising him not to sue. I do understand that Jesus Himself instructs us to “turn the other cheek” and to give a robber the “shirt off our back if they steal our coat.” However, at the same time, the apostle Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen to stand up to various authorities that were persecuting him for his faith. (See Acts 25:7-11) We are, after all, called to stand up for our faith, not to roll over. And this particular acquaintance is still, from what I can tell, a baby Christian, in that he has received Jesus’s free gift of salvation but has not matured very far in his faith yet. So he is particularly susceptible to being swayed by those advising him.
As such, I am personally tending to favor more the latter option, considering how Christianity is coming under outright attack in our country. If I get a chance to speak to him, I wouldn’t outright advise him that it is necessarily right to sue, but rather that it is not automatically morally wrong to do so, and for him to know that, between him and God, he can come to his own conclusion regarding what to do. And, if he were to somehow make the wrong decision, that God would indeed be his guardrail.
That said, my weapon of choice has been prayer. In January, when the vaccine mandate was about to go into effect locally, I felt God put a strong impression on my heart to fight this battle spiritually by gathering a few folks together to study his word, to pray, and to encourage one another. And that is what I’ve been doing since. As for head coach Steve Kerr and the rest of the Golden State Warriors, I have been praying for all of them to get saved, and for those who currently profess to be Christians, specifically Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins, to wake up, and for them to wake up the rest of the organization. I’m praying that they will be not Warriors in name only, but Warriors for the kingdom of God as well. Especially considering that they are the home basketball team for such a spiritually oppressive metropolitan area.
I’ve also been praying specifically for Kerr, for two reasons: 1. due to his public position and stature, he naturally has a megaphone and as such has been using his voice effectively to get out whatever messages he believes, but also 2. it is clear that, due to his father‘s untimely murder decades ago, due to none other than — you guessed it — gun violence, he still harbors a hard heart. Yes, I agree that it was terrible that his dad died, and I cannot imagine the depth of the pain and grief that a loved one suffers when one is murdered. Given that I have loved ones myself, I hope and pray that I never have to go through grief like that. However, it was a terrorist that killed his father, and not the weapon of choice that did the deed. The gun was never the real problem; that same terrorist could’ve chosen to kill his father with a sword, or by poisoning his food. It still would’ve been murder either way. As Christians, we know that a hardened heart keeps a person out of heaven once they die. Psalm 95:7-11 and Hebrews 3:12-19 talk about this in greater details. For Kerr, the only answer is Jesus. He needs to believe also that only Jesus can heal his heart, and only Jesus can help truly forgive the terrorist and grieve this old loss properly. And, by truly turning over this pain to Jesus, even Kerr can understand the necessity for citizens to have proper means for standing up to the government, should it ever become so corrupt that it not only disrupts people’s livelihoods but also their ability to have free will.
Yes, it is still horrible what happened in Texas and Buffalo. Yes, we should not get numb to these things. However, when we harden our hearts and trust in our own solutions rather than responding in God’s love, we create more problems.
As for the real problem, what actually led this young man to shoot up a school, starts and ends with his family of origin. Perhaps they should not have let him get exposed to the guns. Perhaps. Perhaps, though, they should’ve parented him better, giving him the love and support that he needed, but also raising him in the ways of the Lord, or at least in such a way that he would learn that he had the responsibility to grow up and behave in a mature manner. Without having done research on this guy’s background, I am yet still willing to go on record stating that the conclusion I just made is at minimum largely the correct one.
Prior to my philosophical/political shift, I may have leaned the other way regarding these shootings and the Second Amendment and agreed with Kerr. Guns are scary, especially considering I’ve never operated one in my life. Then again, I felt the same way about driving the very first time my driving instructor had me sit in the driver’s seat. Cars can be scary, too. So can trucks. So can... ok, I think you get the point. Every gun owner I’ve ever talked to has underscored the high importance of being responsible, not just in using their gun(s) but also with gun maintenance and with keeping up-to-date in the proper training. One person I knew who revealed that he had a conceal-carry license also explained that, to do so, he had to be what he termed an “upstanding citizen,” which includes always taking the high road even if another citizen were to provoke him to anger. Unlike what the left says, people like this one young man in Texas who decided it was a good idea to shoot up a school are in the vast, vast minority of people who use guns. Yes, I recognize that we’ve probably had at least 25 mass shootings over the last 20 years. However, the vast majority of gun owners are responsible, mature, honest, hard-working people.
If there’s anything broken in all of this, it’s the fact that we’ve allowed no-fault divorce to become law in all fifty states, and that we’ve allowed a systemic breakdown of the family structure that knows no race: whites, blacks, Hispanics, eastern Asians, etc., have all experienced the consequences of these particular changes to the laws. Not to mention, the allowance of abortion, all in the name of “reproductive health.” But these topics are for another post, another time. If we want to fix “the problem,” so to speak, we need to look at what we’ve allowed to have happen over the last fifty years.
Once we, as a nation, have a hard look in the mirror to see what we have allowed ourselves to become, and once we repent of all the things that we’ve done and/or allowed to cause us to move away from our roots (which, by the way, includes the Bible!), only then can we address the problem of schools, movie theaters, shopping malls, etc., being shot up by a deranged individual or two, once or twice a year, every year. But it’s time that we look through the right end of the microscope.
And in case you think I’ve forgotten what that includes: give your life over to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Recognize that you are evil by nature, like we all are (and the shooters in Buffalo and Texas sure gave us a fresh reminder of what we are capable of!), and that only Jesus can save you. Even though I know I am saved, I still have to take this step every day in my own life, reminding myself that without Jesus I am nothing and capable only of evil, but also that, with Him, I can do anything that is good. (Philippians 4:13)
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