![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jan. 27th, 2011
ITEM [via BoingBoing]: Pastor James Brown, Jr of Barnesville, Georgia expresses his support for H.B. 54, a state bill that would restore the right of people to carry guns in church.
The group Georgia Gun Owners is, understandably, chuffed to the gills about this.
Because you never know when a John Woo movie is going to break out in the middle of a service.
The thing is, sometimes it really happens.
We could argue all day about whether incidents like that – as well as Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Arizona shooting (not the Giffords shooting – I mean the other one with the anti-immigrant militia shooting a nine-year-old kid in the head twice) or whatever – would have turned out better or worse if only everyone had been packing iron that day rather than just the shooter(s).
We could also probably argue whether Jesus would advocate deadly force in self-defense, or whether bringing guns to church shows a certain lack of faith in the ability of God to look after his own.
But that’s really beside the point.
The point, to me, is this:
If yr arguing in favor of carrying guns to church, yr basically arguing one of three things:
1. You REALLY are afraid of the above scenario happening.
2. You secretly hope like hell it DOES happen because you’ve always wanted to do a Dirty Harry and save the day by shooting the bad guy.
3. Society has reached the point where it’s far better to carry a loaded weapon at all times than to be unarmed.
If the answer is #1 or #2, you might need counseling. If the answer is #3, and if yr right, then we’re pretty much already fucked as a society.
Either way the motivation is the same: fear. That is what this is about. We need to carry guns because we are afraid that someone else with a gun will kill us (or Obama will declare himself emperor, or whatever).
A gun ban will not, of course, solve any of this, so I'm not particularly in favor of one. But I do think it’s time for the open-carry lobby to be honest, drop the constitutional posturing and admit that what they’re really saying is that in modern-day America, carrying a gun is not just a right – it's a necessity.
Then they can explain why they're not quite as vocally upset about guns not being allowed at Sarah Palin rallies.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,
This is dF
The group Georgia Gun Owners is, understandably, chuffed to the gills about this.
Because you never know when a John Woo movie is going to break out in the middle of a service.
The thing is, sometimes it really happens.
We could argue all day about whether incidents like that – as well as Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Arizona shooting (not the Giffords shooting – I mean the other one with the anti-immigrant militia shooting a nine-year-old kid in the head twice) or whatever – would have turned out better or worse if only everyone had been packing iron that day rather than just the shooter(s).
We could also probably argue whether Jesus would advocate deadly force in self-defense, or whether bringing guns to church shows a certain lack of faith in the ability of God to look after his own.
But that’s really beside the point.
The point, to me, is this:
If yr arguing in favor of carrying guns to church, yr basically arguing one of three things:
1. You REALLY are afraid of the above scenario happening.
2. You secretly hope like hell it DOES happen because you’ve always wanted to do a Dirty Harry and save the day by shooting the bad guy.
3. Society has reached the point where it’s far better to carry a loaded weapon at all times than to be unarmed.
If the answer is #1 or #2, you might need counseling. If the answer is #3, and if yr right, then we’re pretty much already fucked as a society.
Either way the motivation is the same: fear. That is what this is about. We need to carry guns because we are afraid that someone else with a gun will kill us (or Obama will declare himself emperor, or whatever).
A gun ban will not, of course, solve any of this, so I'm not particularly in favor of one. But I do think it’s time for the open-carry lobby to be honest, drop the constitutional posturing and admit that what they’re really saying is that in modern-day America, carrying a gun is not just a right – it's a necessity.
Then they can explain why they're not quite as vocally upset about guns not being allowed at Sarah Palin rallies.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,
This is dF
