Fewer Broken Pieces

In Colorado this weekend we had the worst and best possible use of guns fused in one incident. A disturbed young man started killing people, and an armed security woman took him out and stopped the violence.

I know this will spark yet another round of politicking concerning gun control laws, especially in the wake of other recent incidents. That is really of no concern to me.

What is interesting to me is the church context. This is the paragon violence in defense of justice. The negative consequences of this lady not killing the perpetrator would probably included many more dead and wounded until the police responded. So it is quite difficult to argue against for those who oppose every form of Christian violence.

The tension between “defend the weak” and “turn the other cheek” is forefront in this area of Christian ethics.

Update:  It seems the gunman may actually have killed himself.

I have to say that I really wish we lived in a benevolent dictatorship. Then so many questions of societal ethics would be academic. Sadly for my peace of mind, gun control is quite concrete.

As a Christian, one could say that I am an asymptotic pacifist. That is, I am approaching pacifism, but I am not sure I will ever actually get there. I have eschewed violence except perhaps in the case of defending an innocent and helpless third party. That being said, I personally see very little use for handguns and military rifles (hereafter man-killing weapons). I enjoy shooting skeet, and I don’t see anything particularly wrong with using firearms for hunting. Perhaps I may someday own a shotgun for recreation, but I cannot see myself owning a handgun for the simple reason that I cannot imagine myself using one in a manner consistent with my understanding of Jesus’ teaching (and of course there are many other practical arguments against keeping guns in the home). I hope, wish, and pray that my fellow humans will take a similar stance and rid themselves of man-killing weapons.

However, as I have noticed recently, so much of the dialog within Christianity and in society in general deals with the interplay between moral values and sound government. I believe that abortion-on-demand is morally wrong, but I do not think that this issue is best addressed by statute. So though I wish that everyone would stop manufacturing, purchasing, and using man-killing weapons, I am forced to admit that I don’t think it should be the job of the government to prevent its citizens from having such weapons (though I think the use thereof should carry heavy legal liability).

I do not buy into any self defense or crime deterrence arguments for arming the populace (and I am not sure where I stand in light of the statistics on that issue). Rather the best justification for people owning such weapons in my opinion is to deter the government or to defend against invaders. As much as I would like everyone to submit themselves to the duly constituted government, I could not with a clean conscience require anyone to do so if said government were violent and oppressive. Of course, if the United States government ever came to this place, there would have necessarily been a major failure of the citizens, since our system should (in theory) never require violent overthrow. Still, I believe there is validity to the idea that a government should fear its people. Would I participate in an armed rebellion against the government? I cannot imagine so. But I think that people ought to be able to possess the tools to do so as an aspect of human freedom.

That being said, I do have some qualifications. I still have absolutely no problem with most current gun control legislation. Waiting periods and trigger locks are A-OK with me. Also I would like to see concealed-carrying restricted. The reason? If you are going to defend yourself against an evil government, you will probably not need to get your gun in 10 seconds or less. This should resonate well with 2nd Amendment folks because firearms were not useful for immediate self defense when the Bill of Rights was written. Rather, they were useful for use in organized well-regulated militias.

Anyhow, the bottom line is that I wish that there were no man-killing weapons, and I wish that those which exist did not exist in our society. But I cannot extend that wish to create sound policy. Of course, I may and probably will adjust my opinion on this in the future.