According to NBC’s Mike Taibbi, “Gun sales here [in Colorado] are surging.” Ever since the theater shooting in Aurora, gun sales and permit applications in Colorado have increased by 43%. One gun salesman said that when he came to his store to open the morning after the shooting, there were about 15 people standing outside waiting.
Now, don’t get me wrong – like everyone else, I was appalled by the massacre. Death is never a good thing. It wasn’t part of God’s original plan. However, I’m not convinced that the best way to alleviate gun violence is by introducing more guns into the situation. To be fair, my views on this issue have changed a lot over the past decade. There was a time when I thought the best way to deter people from shooting others is to instill fear within them that someone else might shoot them. But, truthfully, most of the people who do this sort of thing don’t love themselves any more than their victims. In fact, a good many shooters finish their killing spree by turning their guns on themselves.
But before I take this much further, I’ll just throw out a few considerations…
Now, these are all practical considerations for our secular world. But lest we forget where I true citizenship resides, let’s focus on what our Lord and his followers taught…
So here’s where I land on it – my heart breaks for the loss and suffering of the victims of the shooting, and their families and friends. Like everyone, my heart cries out for justice. However, as a Christ-follower, I cannot believe that the right course of action is to use weapons. Never once do we see Jesus using a weapon to harm someone, or even allowing for his followers to use weapons. When Jesus was being crucified on the cross, his response was not “If only we would have had more swords.” It was a prayer that God would forgive the people torturing him to death. I think as Christ’s disciples our attitude should be the same toward the shooter, James Holmes, and anyone else like him.
Those are my thoughts. What do you guys think?