SHOULD CHURCHED PEOPLE BEAR ARMS?
Ron Branson
I realize this is provocative title, but be that as it may, I believe this subject must be discussed. This Sunday morning, 12/16/2012, I scanned through all the morning news channels looking for someone making practical sense of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting massacre. The general consensus on every channel was essentially that Chairman Mao, Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler employed the right solution for an armed nation such as America - gun control! I heard gun control advocate after gun control advocate all pumping out their messages that we need stronger gun laws, and that only government should have guns.
Only once did I hear an interviewee make sense. He said, "In every gun massacre we have witnessed recently, there has been the lack of a guns in the hands of the victims." Here we have a man entering a theater, shooting round after round, killing everyone in sight, and not a one could defend himself, or other innocence people also in the theater.
It came down to the shooter expending all his ammunition. Just so in Newtown. The only resistance the shooter faced was a psychologist and a principle charged him bare handed only to be shot dead. With them dead, he was free to continue to kill as many six year olds as he could.
Shooter had no grievances with these little children, his plan was to only glean maximum public rage. He was successful at that, and he had no opposition. With his mission accomplished, he then decided to take his own life.
No one other than a single voice on the media I saw asked for consideration of the many lives that could have been saved if only the psychologist and the principle were armed. Like a lightening rod, anyone at that time with a gun would have drawn away fire when fired upon by another person with a gun.
In fact, even if someone had a gun containing blanks, it would have drawn away the firing at children and potentially saved some of the children's lives.
Now I have entitled this article, "Should Churched People Bear Arms?" Some may be saying, "We don't need guns in Churches." My response would be, "And likewise we don't need guns in kindergarten classes."
The objective goal at Newtown was maximum public outrage. I argue that there would be more of a motivation for shooting 27 people at your local Church on Sunday morning because they disagreed with the pastor's message the week before.
We have now have a politician shot through the head, a theater bloodied up with dead bodies, and now a class full little children waisted. Are the Churches next? I ask, what are the plans if someone entered your local Church Sunday morning armed to the teeth and started unloaded upon the congregation? Well, you might say, "Well, I am ready to go home to be with the Lord, and I am willing to die for my faith!" But such nonchalance misses the issue. This is not about your going to heaven, but you standing up for what is right, and protecting those who may not be ready to step out into eternity.
The Greatest Authority n this is God Himself. In Luke 22:35 & 36 we read, "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." In modern-day language, Christ would have said, "When you go out witnessing for the truth, if you don't have a gun, go sell whatever you have to buy yourself a gun."
Thus, Christ taught self-defense, as the sword in that day was not used for spreading butter, or for peeling potatoes. I ask, did God frown upon the action our Founding Fathers in declaring independence from the tyrant, King George, III? I say Nay! History reveals that it was the pastors who led the People in the fight for freedom in the founding of this nation. Pastors carried guns under their robes and were prepared to lead their People in the cause. Just so, I ask, would it be wrong for pastors today to keep a gun under their pulpits? I think not.
Let us contemplate the March 23, 1775 words of Patrick Henry spoken in St. John's Church in Richmond, Va., "Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Please note, that I did not entitle this article, "Should The Churched Own Arms," but "Should The Churched Bear Arms?" The word "Bear" in the Second Amendment of the Constitution means, "Carry." Truly, I have seen faithful church goers packing arms on their hips as they pasted through the doors of their Church!
I once had the opportunity of watching a movie of a small town such as Newtown, Connecticut in which the District Attorney had an appointment with his wife and their little girl at a local restaurant in town. However, when he got there, he found the partitioned off by the police as a crime scene. He, being the D.A., pushed aside the yellow partitioning and entered the scene. Within he found many bloody bodies laying around everywhere. He told the police that he had a appointment with his wife and daughter there, and asked about their affair. The police reluctantly told him that they both were shot up. The D.A. became an emotion wreck, and he had to be restrained.
What had happened was three men wearing masks over the face came in with shotguns and told everyone "Freeze." Everyone was instructed to empty everything out of their pockets, including their watches, rings and bracelets, and place them into the bag they were carrying. The D.A.'s little girl started crying frantically, and her mother raised to comfort her daughter, but this move made the trigger-happy thieves nervous, and one of the robbers cut lose with a blast from his shotgun. Then spontaneously the rest of the thieves started shooting. The result was a bloody massacre, with his wife and child dead.
After the passing of time, the D.A. was able to make an emotional recovery. Thereafter, he envisioned the scene if everyone in the restaurant was carrying a gun. The film reenacted the scent as envisioned by the District Attorney, in which these same three armed masked men entered the restaurant and shouted, "Everyone freeze." What you then heard was several gun hammers being pulled back with the robbers realizing they were surrounded by an armed public, and they dropped their weapons to the floor with no one hurt.
After this fashion, let us recreate the scene in Newtown, CT. of a gunman entering the building via a window and fired off twelve rounds of ammunition, killing four children. But instead of everyone being without arms, the psychologist and the principle quickly drew their guns, and wounding the shooter, and averted his shooting and killing a total of 20 school children and seven adults, including the psychologist and the principle.
The obvious point being, the only real and positive way to stopped crazed individuals shooting guns is to equal the playing field, i.e., shoot back! In every real case of the mass shootings we know about, a gun doubtless would have mitigated the scene. Then, of course, the national media would have to then search for a spin to place on the scene, for we just can not have citizens with guns blowing away individuals, even if they be criminals in the act. After all, we have to learn to be kind and loving, and reason with armed criminals while they are blowing away innocent citizens.
Ron Branson