The Economy of Violence


The NRA has made its statement on guns. Mo' guns, mo' better. There is a truth in this, sort of. Guns are creators of inequality in the most brutal calculus possible. I have bullets, you don't. I win. Ask the Native American how he felt being on the losing side of that equation. If everyone had guns, there would be only a questions of whose gun would be more lethal, whose hand was more steady, whose eye was sharper, and whose heart was colder. But, everyone still would have a shot no matter what was in the hand. The first shot has the edge because one bullet can do the job.

I have heard the argument that guns in Colonial and Constitutional times were muskets and the 2nd amendment was based on this inefficiency . But, this was the common gun of both government and the citizen. If the government has Uzis, and the citizen has a 22 rifle, there is an inequality, and vice-versa. Yet, as a Christian, I ask is this piece of dirt that we call Earth worth fighting for? I heard a prominent Christian leader speak on NPR on the biblical basis for guns. Really? Truly? Jesus did not base his mission on disarming his enemies through superior firepower. Instead, He laid it down and trusted that God would raise Him up. Until He comes again, He left us that example. Triumph through refusing to use violence to impose His message. There will come a time when He will reign absolutely, yet until then we have to recognize that using violence to compel our beliefs will always run counter to the Kingdom because of our proclivity in believing in the righteousness of our perspective. Only God judges aright, we had be mighty careful about assuming the mantle of the Almighty.

Civil authority is to bear the sword or the gun. Paul says this in Romans. And, the Roman Empire at the time was hardly righteous. So, it makes Paul's pronouncement even more powerful because that sword more often than not came down on the Christians neck, including his own.  I don't respect the NRA because they refuse to acknowledge that the gun is not the ultimate arbiter. God is.    

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