I bet that got your attention!  What Jesus didn’t say anything about gun control did he?  Well, I think we can have a pretty good understanding of what Jesus would’ve said by reading a few words that Jesus said about swords.  In Luke 22:36, Jesus tells His disciples to get a sword He even seems to imply that a sword on this trip will serve to be more important than a coat when He mentions selling the coat to have a sword.  Two verse later, Jesus seems to indicate that two swords among the twelve disciples would be enough.  As I read that I wonder, “What was Jesus really saying?”  Then on that same night, Peter pulls out his sword (a sword that Jesus encouraged him to take along) and cuts off a Roman guard’s ear.  Jesus immediately tells Peter to put down his sword telling him that he should know that anyone who lives by the sword, will die by the sword.  Basically Jesus was telling Peter – Peter that sword will get you killed, PUT IT DOWN!

So, we have a dilemma or a quandary “Jesus on sword control.”

Obviously Jesus didn’t want Peter and the disciples to use a sword haphazardly.  But He did clearly instruct them to carry one at least once, so why the difference?  Some have said that the purpose of the sword was in ensure that the Roman soldiers had an excuse to arrest Jesus that night, but I don’t see that as being the issue.  If that were the issue, I assume Peter would’ve been arrested as well.

I think Jesus saw the value of having the means of protection in hand.  I think Jesus would be opposed to stricter gun control as well.  I’ve sometimes called myself a pacifist, but I realize now that there is a communication problem with my use of that word.  Let me be very clear about my personal beliefs.  I often get the question, “What if someone were to attack your wife or kids, what would you do then?”  First of all, I want to scream “No one is attacking my wife and kids!”  Then I relax and I try to answer the question.

My thoughts on gun control.  #1  We should teach high school seniors how to point and shoot a gun before they graduate.  #2  We should encourage more people to have concealed handgun permits.  #3  We should have so many guns in this country that no criminal ever thinks about pulling another Columbine, Virginia Tech, or movie shooting.  #4  We as believers should always being willing to sacrifice our personal lives for the protection of others.  As believers we know that absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  #5  If I go and get a concealed handgun permit, it will be for the protection of my family and loved ones.  #6  I am willing to shoot, but I certainly wouldn’t want to kill.  #7  Because I don’t want to kill, I probably won’t get a concealed handgun permit.  (Unless I already have one and am packing everyday.  You’ll never know and I like it that way.  :)  #8  When I find myself in a dangerous situation, I sometimes go immediately into autopilot.  Here’s an example…

I’m not wanting to brag here and I certainly don’t see this as true bravery.  It is either stupidity or the Spirit of God taking over, but it certainly isn’t me.  I make fun of the MMA fighters but truthfully, I make fun of them and call what they do fake because that kind of violence scares me.  Anyway, back to the example…  I was driving down the road last year sometime in the aplacetotalk van with about 6 teenagers, when the teens saw a fight between a man and a woman at a local gas station.  The teens in the van started screaming at me to look.

“That lady is getting beat up.”

I without a whole lot of slow responsible thought, I quickly drove past the situation until I felt that the teens in my van were out of danger.  Then I hoofed it across the parking lot and across a fence to the fight.  (I wasn’t carrying my gun by the way.)  When I arrived at the fight, it was still in full swing.  Literally the man was swinging at the lady when I got my slow overweight self to the situation, but I made in time to end scuffle.  I stepped right in between the swinging man and scared woman.  He was enraged; he didn’t have a shirt on but I saw it laying on the ground to my right his left.

As I stepped in between them I spoke loud and firm,”If you have to hit someone Sir, hit me!”

He backed away and said, ”I’m not hitting anyone but that b-tch.”

She sped away literally spinning her tires in the parking lot.

I said “I know this is none of my business but I couldn’t allow you to continue to hit her.”

His attitude and demeanor changed almost instantly.  It seems like he tried to hug me, (my memory is cloudy now) but he did at least reach out his hand in a non-violent way.  He wasn’t angry anymore, he was still a bit intoxicated, but someone stepping in and sacrificing himself instantly changed the atmosphere of that parking lot.

My example is simply that, an example.  Will that always work?  I doubt it.  Will there come a day when I have to pull someone off of another person instead of simply stepping in between them, maybe.  Could there be a time that I have to knock someone over the head rendering them unconscious to protect someone else, that is certainly a possibility.  Will there come a day when I’ll choose to show a gun, hoping that I don’t have to use it.  Well that too is certainly a possibility.  Would I be willing to raise my voice and attempt to scare a criminal set to hurt my family or someone else?  Absolutely.  Would I shoot someone in the arm if I could to stop them from hurting my wife, kids, friends, or family?  Without a second thought.  Would I shoot to kill?  No, I hope I would never go that far.  Why?  You might ask why I would stop short of killing someone.  Because every other step in the defense of my family or loved ones would be a step that could end in restoration, but taking a life is something that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.  I think I’d rather lay down my life than to take the life of another.

So, what would Jesus say about gun control?  I don’t know for sure, but I choose to take the route I outlined above as I attempt to follow what I believe Jesus would have me to do or say.  I hope that makes my thoughts and beliefs clear.

One more thing… As Americans I think we’ve grown as a nation.  In our past we used nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In those two bombings we killed over 90,000 people, most of whom were civilians.  To think that a crime like that was justified or acceptable isn’t only wrong, it is evil.  I think the majority of level headed, thinking people in America today would argue that evil like that should never be tolerated again, neither by our government or any other government.

So where am I on gun control, I think we should work hard to get illegal guns off the streets.  I think we should make any and all guns legal.  Then I think we should teach people to be disciples of Jesus Christ and only carry the gun as a determent to crime.  Someday, if we all grow to become non-violent followers of Jesus maybe we’ll be able to lay down all of our guns – until then carry them wisely!

Oh, by the way  Michael Bloomberg and I disagree if you didn’t get that before.

Here’s another article about gun control that hit the presses recently.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/bill-oreilly-calls-on-congress-to-pass-another-gun-law-during-heated-segment/

I don’t know about this one… but I know this.  I’m seriously considering the purchase of a few more guns just to have them in case my family needs to show that we can defend ourselves.  I’d love to be good enough with a pistol to know that I could shoot to wound and not to kill.  Having the confidence to shoot someone in the knee cap Denny Crane style would be a valuable skill for a pacifist, who believes in protecting his family!  :)