Thinking about Guns

This came recently from one of my Aussie friends: I am keen to hear your thoughts on last Friday's shooting, especially in regards to Americans rights to bear arms. As Australians we really struggle with this, especially coming from Christians. Maybe you can enlighten us....  If you read any Australian articles about it, we all think it's crazy how accessible guns are to anyone!

My thoughts...

I think our founding fathers, in including the right to bear muskets in the Constitution, would not have envisioned or approved semi-automatic weapons. I support the right to bear arms, but I would draw the line at a much more restrictive limit.

A cliché I hear repeatedly is that "guns don't kill people; people kill people." True. Also, dynamite doesn't kill people; people kill people. Nukes don't kill people; people kill people. But I don't want dynamite or guns readily accessible. Anything that can do large scale damage needs to be restricted in a fallen world.

And my theology says humanity is desperately fallen. So a lot of people will kill other people, and themselves, if they have a way to do so. Yet with more checks, balances and accountability, we can limit the scope of the damage. If the guy in Connecticut had to get permission to check out his mom's guns, and if he had to re-load a few times when he used them, we would have seen a different outcome.

Our family has a rifle. My father and brothers were deer hunters. The piece is not easily accessible, and we store the ammo separately. So I'm not suggesting we outlaw guns. I don't want a society where the only people with guns are those who possess them illegally. And if we make them illegal now, millions already own them. It is complicated. But we have to limit assault weapons, restrict Internet purchase of ammo, and store guns where people have to get a disinterested signature to use them.

I think it is appropriate, and not politicizing, that our president and Congress are talking about gun control in the wake of such a tragedy. They are supposed to propose solutions to problems, and gun deaths in America are a big problem. (We would criticize them if they did nothing.) The Children’s Defense Fund found that 2,800 children and teens die because of guns every year. Take Iraq and Afghanistan and add all the troops we've lost, and we have still had more funerals for kids because of gun deaths. Or add all the officers killed doing their jobs in law enforcement, and that number is still less than the number of preschoolers who die every year due to guns in the USA.

Yes, violence still happens in places where people don't have ready access to guns. The assassin in Norway, which has pretty restrictive laws, killed 77 people. But if we step back and count the total number of lives lost in Norway in one typical year due to gun violence, we count count them on two hands. Let's not use Norway as an excuse to do nothing.

Assault weapons can kill many people at a time. So we need to limit assault weapons. But that's not enough. Most people who die in America due to gun violence get shot with handguns. In fact, having a gun in the home increases the odds that its owner will get shot. We need to re-think the "I can defend myself" logic. It's safer to call 911 than to grab our guns when we hear intruders.

In 1787, the biggest threat on the minds of most Americans was oppressive government. Sadly, today Americans' biggest threat is our fellow citizens. We must find a way to protect ourselves from both.

UPDATE: My Aussie friend send me a link to this interesting article about how Australia tackled the issue successfully.