SEVERSON : Like many of the 41 murders in Harlem last year, most were committed with illegal guns — double the gun deaths from a year before.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN : Because we were out here last summer and saw a shoot out right on the corner like it was the O.K. Corral.
SEVERSON : When her sons were killed, Jackie says at first she was angry with God but now she credits God for transforming her anger into a cause.
Ms. ROWE ADAMS : I woke up one morning and I said, “No! Enough is enough!” My husband said, “What’s the matter?” I said, “I can’t take it.” I said, “What are the elected officials doing? What are the churches doing?”
SEVERSON : The influential Riverside Church on Harlem’s West Side is trying to do something. Jackie met with Reverend Arnold Thomas to offer her group’s help. He’s registering churches around the country to participate in a “God Not Guns” Sabbath the weekend of September 29 and 30.
Reverend ARNOLD THOMAS (The Riverside Church, New York City): Americans need to have a serious conversation about how guns have contributed to really the destruction and the continuing demise of our way of life and our culture.
Some thoughts.
The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” is a faulty interpretation. The commandment is more correctly stated “Thou shalt not murder” or “Thou shalt not kill innocents.”
Second, anti-gun legislation has served to disarm the law abiding citizen much more that it has served to disarm criminals who hurt people with guns.
New York City has extremely strict anti-gun laws. The criminals laugh at them. They can buy illegal guns on the street any time they want them. Let’s be thankful that they haven’t developed a taste for fully automatic weapons. There are literally millions of fully automatic weapons lying around in Central America and northern South America. The same people who easily smuggle great quantities of narcotics across our southern border can also smuggle fully automatic weapons, if the demand for them exists in our major cities. Let’s pray that that demand will never develop.
Third, a citizen instructed in safe and legal hand gun use can deter criminals. The fact that a citizen might be able to defend his/herself creates a major uncertainty and fear factor in the minds of violent criminals.
Fourth, when it comes to criminal violence, the police rarely protect us. They can’t. All that they can do is be alert and on patrol. That is a deterrent, not a protection. When the violent criminal kills someone, the damage is done. All that the police can do is investigate the crime, pursue the killer, if he is known, and arrest him. That doesn’t help the poor store owner or apartment dweller who is at the mercy of the street criminal.
It is possible to create laws to disarm citizens, but it is impossible to legislate violent criminals out of existance in our society. They have always been here and it looks like they will always be here. They are a reality. The real questions are pragmatic in nature and their answers should lead to greater safety for the law abiding citizen.
Each of us has the right to protect him/herself on the street and in our homes.
I do believe that church groups should have a greater impact in neighborhoods in which and from which criminals operate. But changing the heart and mind of a person who has murdered or is capable of murder in the midst of his criminal environment is no small task. Heck, most congregants can’t even persuade their own family members to attend church and that seems to a whole lot easier than converting violent criminals.
Things lacking in our culture on this subject:
1. Knowlege that criminals are cowards.
2. Understanding that Blackstone says that there is but one legitimate reason for government to execute judgement: to deter the lawbreaker.
3. The part of the Christian Church in all of this is to improve the Christian’s charactor. “Love your neighbor”, etc.. “Guns” debate distracts from this purpose.
With regards to the above items, I note that the above poster notes: Each of us has the right to protect him/herself on the street and in our homes. True, but as a Christian it is my duty to protect my family and my neighbor. It is out of this Christian duty that the founding fathers saw a “right” to arms. The “right” is recognised by government, the “duty” is given by God. We must do our duty to God even if government removes our right to do so. Such is the stuff of martyrdom.
DonGander
[i]Americans need to have a serious conversation about how guns have contributed to really the destruction and the continuing demise of our way of life and our culture.[/i]
I think Americans need to have a serious conversation about how thuggery, relativism, broken families, idolizing criminals, etc, have contributed to the demise of our way of life. These shoot-outs are not occurring in my town, which (being near Appalachia) probably has more guns per square mile (at least legal guns) than the urban areas discussed.
I think so long as society focuses on a tool that has positive and negative uses, as opposed to evil (yes, evil) people that use a tool improperly, we are missing the point. It is easy to blame a tool, much harder to look at what in a society of neighborhood are causing young people to shoot each other. I wonder if the people interviewed here (minus the evangelical) are the same ones who, on TV, after a thug has killed someone say “oh, but he (the criminal) is such a good boy!”
RE: “Second, anti-gun legislation has served to disarm the law abiding citizen much more that it has served to disarm criminals who hurt people with guns.”
I hear that, brother.
What this article demonstrates is that the criminals are *still* acquiring guns, no matter what the law says about it.
The empiracal data on the disarming of the good citizenry of Australia and Britain has shown that gun control does not reduce crime but in fact increases it – Washington DC is another good example. The hysteria surrounding the relatively recent concealed carry laws was also unfounded. In Texas the crime rate went down when we built a bunch of new prisons. In fact, one of the reasons my father left the Episcopal Church was when he read that the GC in I think ’94 past a resolution calling for the abolishment of Federal maximum security prisons.
I wish someone could supply some up to date information about the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty versus the number of criminals killed in the act of performing a life threatening felony. Years ago it was 15 to 1 (approx. 1500 officers verus approx. 100 criminals) I know of one man who gave his grandson his handgun because the Army did not supply handguns to its troops in Iraq. The man still has a shotgun that can be ready if someone somehow can bust down a deadlocked steel clad door.
It wasn’t long ago that a shipment from China was confiscated in Oakland CA and found to contain illegal machine guns for black market sale. So, as long as we have such friends abroad, no matter how much guns are declared illegal, crooks will get them.
Criminals break the law?
I’m shocked.
“Christians, not criminals” would be a more effective goal.