Gun Control or Self-Control?

Contemplate the pseudo-psychological solution

To remedy the emptiness of my condition

When what I need is simply power from on high

To take this earth bound heart and give me wings so I can fly 

(Sterling Brown, The Power of Love)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

If we confiscated all the guns on planet earth, would that make our world a safer place?  If we confiscated all the guns on planet earth, would that keep innocent people from dying?  The obvious answer to both of these questions is no. 

I was reminded of this fact the other day while my three sons watched one of their favorite television shows.  The Deadliest Warrior is a history show that tries to determine who is the mightiest warrior of all time.  One of the ways they try to ascertain this is by judging the effectiveness of the weaponry used by each warrior during their time of prowess.  The weapons featured on the show such as throwing stars, the katana, swords, arrows, axes, bombs, etc. are all reminders that human beings have no problem creating weapons to kill people.

In fact, box cutters and airplanes were used by terrorists to bring mass destruction and death on that horrific day when the world watched the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.  Today, we can’t even carry a bottle of water onto our flight because it might contain some material that could be used to crash the plane.  I never would have thought that a bottle of water could be so threatening.

While writing this blog the horrific “breaking news” of the bombings during the Boston Marathon flashed across my television screen.  It was another unfortunate example that human beings do not lack the creativity for hurting, maiming and even killing innocent people.  Oh, by the way, the Boston Marathon terrorists did not use a gun!

An honest assessment of gun use in our country tells a much different story than many of our pundits and politicians.

According to the “Loaded Questions” article in the February 23, 2013 edition of World Magazine, the FBI reports about 13,000 homicides annually in the United States.  About two-thirds involve firearms.  In 2012 mass shootings took less than 100 lives—less than 1 percent of all homicide victims.  Nearly eight times as many Americans died from physical beatings.

The most controversial gun laws President Barack Obama has proposed since the mass shootings in Sandy Hook likely wouldn’t stop much of the urban violence in places like Chicago and Atlanta: Many shooters use handguns—not the kind of assault weapons the president has proposed banning.  (And though some proposals for expanded background checks make sense, most urban shooters don’t buy guns legally.

Indeed, some wonder whether the measures would stop massacres like Sandy Hook and others: In Newtown, Lanza used weapons his mother bought legally in a state with strict gun control laws.  The Virginia Tech shooter, who killed 32 victims in 2007, passed a background check despite serious mental health issues.  And the Columbine High School massacre happened during the federal assault weapons ban spanning 1994 to 2004.

When it comes to the proposal to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, Robert Levy of the libertarian Cato Institute believes a ban on magazines with 20 rounds or more makes sense, and possibly could stop a mass shooter from inflicting mass causalities.  (The president and some legislators advocate a ban on magazines with 10 rounds or more.)  Either way, Levy notes a significant problem: Homemade magazines are easy to build.

Levy successfully argued the Supreme Court case in 2008 that overturned a ban on most handguns in Washington D.C.  During the 32-year ban, gun violence and homicides in the district soared, as criminals maintained their arsenals, and many law-abiding citizens went unarmed.  The court’s 2008 decision underscored citizen’s Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

Jeffrey Shapiro, a former prosecutor in D.C., notes since the court struck down the gun ban, murders in D.C. dropped from 186 in 2008 to 88 in 2012—the lowest number of homicides since the district enacted the gun ban in 1976. (Loaded Questions by Jamie Dean, World Magazine, February 23, 2013)

So, if guns are not the ultimate threat to our safety, and if gun control is no guarantee to prevent the murdering of innocent people, how do we address the issue of violence?

First, we have to deal with the real problem.  What’s wrong with the world? What is the problem?  Sin!  The real threat to our safety is the human heart!  (Genesis 6:5, 8:21) 

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about his new job.  He works for an agency that tries to help foster children.  He was lamenting over his frustration about how the agency can never get anything done to help the children.  The employees are more concerned about their job title and the feeling of power they think their title gives them.  The power of their position is more important than the people they are hired to help.  In addition to the struggle for power and control, the kids are never taught how to deal with their issues because it is politically incorrect to really identify the problem.  In other words, they won’t call sin…sin!

When a person repents of their sins, and puts their faith in Jesus Christ to receive Him as Lord and Savior, two of the great benefits he/she receives are the gift of the Holy Spirit and a new heart.  The Holy Spirit identifies a person as a child of God, leads that person in truth, and helps that person bear the fruit of God’s Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23 lists how the fruit of the Spirit manifests in a disciple of Jesus.  We should pay careful attention to the first and last fruit of the Spirit—the bookends, if you will, of God’s Spirit!

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  A disciple of Jesus must be motivated by love, and must maintain self-control in order to possess joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness.

In Proverbs 25:28, we are reminded that protection and safety are linked to self-control.

Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.  Proverbs 25:28

Walls are built to keep a city safe and protected from those who would dare to do it harm.  When the walls of a city are broken down, evil-minded people have easier access to commit their heinous crimes.  Like the broken walls of a city that invite terror, a person with no self-control is more likely to get hurt, and hurt or even murder innocent people.

Here are a few of my other favorite Scriptures on self-control:

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.  (Proverbs 16:23)  A person with self-control possesses an internal fortitude that is more powerful than a mighty warrior who can overtake a city.

Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,  (1 Timothy 3:2) A key attribute for leaders who oversee people should be self-control.

If we want to solve the problems and crimes we face in America in the 21^st century, we must start by accurately identifying the problem.  The problem with America today is a refusal to call sin for what it is…sin!  Once we identify the problem, then and only then, can we begin to offer a solution.  The only solution for sin in the human heart is the Holy Spirit!

Country music singer Kenny Chesney, in his hit song "You and Tequila", sings: "It's always your favorite sins that do you in."  He is absolutely right!  That is why Romans 6:12 says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."

Government policies, such as gun control, will never solve the dilemma of our condition.  We cannot legislate morality.  The less self-government or self-control the citizens of a nation possess, the more external government they need to try to maintain order.  These legislative attempts, without the Holy Spirit, are always in vain!

I’ll conclude with a very insightful and wise statement form our second President, John Adams, who understood the only people possible of maintaining order and decency in a nation are moral and religious citizens.  He said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Do we need more government policies such as the ones that promote gun control, or do we need more power from the Holy Spirit that provides self-control?  You know which one I choose!

How about you?