It's Not About the Guns

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin

On December 14, 2012, a deranged Adam Lanza entered the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed twenty kindergarten children as well as six adults.  This was the second-deadliest mass shooting in United States History.  The heartfelt outcry was universal and immediate.  How could this have possibly happened again?  When were we going to do something about these mass murders?  What were we going to do to protect the innocent among us?  Shouldn’t we get rid of these powerful and high-capacity firearms that always seem to be used in these killings?  Wasn’t this the obvious answer?  Were there other solutions?  Better solutions? These are all obvious as well as very good questions.  

Can a Christian Be a Gun Nut?

I’m surprised at how infrequently I really stop to think about it, but in one way I am living a life of uneasy tension as a gun-promoting, gun-toting, card-carrying NRA member who is simultaneously a committed follower of Jesus Christ.  The Sandy Hook shooting has shown me how easily I can compartmentalize my thoughts when it comes to certain subjects.  On the one hand, I’m an ardent defender of the Second Amendment to the point of including the availability of one-hundred shot magazines and Bushmaster assault rifles.  On the other hand, I’m basically a practical personal pacifist with a strong desire to avoid physical confrontations.