Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.
Invariably, whenever I state my personal objections to guns, and the reasons why my individual understanding of my faith won’t allow me to own one, that’s the party line I get. I’m told that violence is a people problem.
I completely agree.
Further, I am told, often facetiously, that if we vilify guns for gun violence, we may as well vilify rocks and hammers and cars, as they too are neutral objects, which, when misused, can cause incredible damage, or even kill.
I’m willing to give you that.
But let’s all be honest about the death of Travon Martin for a moment…
He wasn’t killed with a rock, or a hammer, or a car, as he grabbed some Skittles and iced tea at a convenience store 17 months ago.
And we agree: A gun didn’t kill Tavon Martin.
A gunowner, filled with false courage, motivated by irrational fear, and empowered to act recklessly because of his gun, killed Travon Martin.
No, guns absolutely did not create whatever led George Zimmerman to relentlessly pursue an unarmed teenager he had never met, through the February evening streets, (even when told by a 911 operator not to).
His gun, however, did enable him to initiate a confrontation, which would never have occurred, had he been without it; a completely avoidable, unneccessary confrontation, which left two people fighting for their lives. The unarmed teenager lost his fight for survival, to a gun-carrying adult, who brazenly claimed self-defense, after embodying the very word offensive.
Guns are not the issue here for me, but the way a person’s fear, racism, violence, and paranoia, can be fed by guns, (or rocks, hammers or cars, for that matter).
We all carry those dangerous, deeper things within us in various levels; those bits of bigotry and blind spots and hidden hatreds, but we’re usually wired to back away.
We are normally more measured and passive with other strangers in times of worry or conflict, as self-preservation and common sense take over…unless we have something that makes us feel powerful.
George Zimmerman didn’t back away from the fight as he invaded the personal business of Travon Martin, but actually generated it, and the greatest reason, whether gun proponents want to admit it or not, is because he was packin’ a piece.
The cowboy/hero mentality that the media has perpetuated, and that we’ve all grown-up on kicked-in, and George Zimmerman went from Neighborhood Watchman, to Suburban Vigilante in an instant. Before he could come to his senses and realize the power he held in his hand as he stalked another human being, his and Travon’s screams were now twisted together in a mutual, desperate bid for life.
And it never needed to happen.
How many unnecessary conflicts have your weapons of choice led you to; your rocks and hammers and cars and guns? How have the things that give you power or advantage, magnified your anger, put conterfiet muscle to your fear, and caused you to step too boldly or too carelessly into the fight?
To agree with those who would consider me on the opposite side of gun control; this ultimately is not a gun problem, it’s a people problem.
I’m not asking for different gun laws, and I’m not asking that guns be removed from the hands of private citizens.
What I am asking, is that all gunowners decry George Zimmerman’s reckless, wasteful, misuse of a gun, and his refusal to stop at the only ammo he needed to do any supposed protecting or defending that night: his cell phone.
I’m looking for those who claim Christ, to stand against hatred and violence and stereotyping and the wasting of all life, wherever it happens. We are men and women of an “all people” God. Let us walk toward that deliberately, even if we have to confront our friends, and ourselves on the way.
And I’m praying that all of us who use rocks and hammers and cars and guns, will consider the effect those things have on the darker places within us, and for the sake of more Travon’s, that before ever needing to “stand our ground”, we will simply choose, to stand down.
