Dear Editor,
Guns are often the weapon of choice for those who desire to commit crimes against society. Escambia County and Santa Rosa County are not immune to such acts. Recently in Bagdad, Florida, two teenagers broke into a house to commit robbery. The resident was shot and killed. How did these teenagers get their guns? Will new gun control laws really make a difference?
Many want to prevent the mentally ill from having guns. That sounds good; but you might want to check the fine print. If a doctor offers medication to assist a person grieving the loss of a spouse, is that doctor also going to inform authorities to remove all guns from the house? Are the best trained men and women in the world going to have to give up their guns because they were once diagnosed with PTSD? Will a person have to pass a mental health exam before receiving a gun collection as an inheritance? And if he or she fails the test, what happens to those guns? Better not offend your doctor.
Many people have conceal-carry permits, meaning they had to qualify first before being allowed to legally carry a concealed gun. In Texas, a person can seek an open-carry permit. But like the dead bolt on your front door, gun laws only slow down the process for honest people. If the criminally-minded want to get into your house, no dead bolt will stop them. And if the criminally-minded want a gun, no gun law will stop them.
The real issue is neither guns nor gun control laws. Guns do not kill people; people choose to kill people. Knives do not kill people, people choose to kill people. The jawbone of a donkey did not kill 1,000 Philistines. Samson killed 1,000 Philistines using the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 15:14-17). Should we pass laws to prevent the future use of donkey jawbones? Rather than asking citizens to give up gun rights, which has led to more gun purchases, government leaders should be asking citizens to abide by an old law.
The law we should all agree on, and should advocate from the White House, the state house, the court house, the school house, the church house, your house and my house, is the law of love. Jesus was asked by a lawyer to name the greatest commandment in the Law (Matthew 22:35-40). Jesus said to love the Lord God first and foremost and then to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus added that the Law is dependent upon such love. In other words, without love for God, neighbors, and our self, we totally fail as a society governed by laws. Love does not lead to cheating, stealing, and killing. Love leads to a respect for people and their rights. Jesus even said to love your enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:44).
After two jihadists killed defenseless people in San Bernardino, California, the front page headline of the New York Daily News declared, “god isn’t fixing this”. That’s right. God isn’t fixing this because He has already given us the fix, but we are not listening to Him. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God….The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8, nasb).
Pastor Jim Liberacki
East Side Baptist Church, Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Gun control not the answer, love is