By Doug Newman – email me here.
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I have an old friend who is a great person, but also someone with whom I disagree on more than a few political issues. The other evening she called me out saying a Christian shouldn’t be opposed to gun control. I don’t have a lot of time for these things right now, but I felt compelled to give a basic biblical response to her challenge.

A few observations:

• How did Cain kill Abel in Genesis 4:8? Not with a gun, certainly. The Bible doesn’t say because it doesn’t matter. Cain was evil, not his weapon, which may very well have been his own hands.
• There are numerous wars all throughout Scripture and lots of killing. However, there were no guns as they would not exist for many more centuries.
• In Luke 11:21-22, Jesus Himself states: “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” He wants His followers to be armed for defensive purposes.
• In Luke 22:36, Jesus states: “… But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” This was the last instruction He gave His followers before He was arrested. He wants us to arm ourselves not just spiritually but physically as well!
• “But what about ‘if you live by the sword you die by the sword'”? In the pertinent passage – Matthew 26:52-54 – Jesus tells Peter to put the sword in its place, not to get rid of the sword. Nor does He appeal to Rome to implement “sword control.”
• There is absolutely zero indication anywhere in Scripture to support the notion that denying people access to inanimate objects will prevent them from doing evil. Attention right-wingers: therefore, the Drug War is just as unbiblical as gun control.
• Gun control is not only not biblical, it is Darwinist! It renders the state – and criminals in general – more “fit” than its subjects. There is a HUGE correlation between citizen disarmament and genocide!

• As my friend was a teacher for many years, it is relevant to point out that in the worst school massacre in American history in 1927 in Bath, Michigan, the perp did not use any guns. This was at a time when you could buy all sorts of guns in the Sears catalog! Indeed, you almost never heard of a school shooting until 1990 when schools became gun-free zones.

For a far more thorough treatment of this subject, please read this very fine essay by Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America.

Jeremiah 17:9 calls the human heart “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” All the laws in the world will not change the human heart. If the state will take away guns it will also, at some point, claim unlimited power over the lives of its subjects, fancying itself not merely as god, but as a very jealous god ruthlessly wielding an iron fist against any and all competitors.

The state is composed of people. Becoming an employee of the state does not elevate one to any morally superior level. Daniel 4:17 tells us that God sets up the “basest of men” over earthly kingdoms. Do you want to trust the “basest” among us with a monopoly on tools of lethal violence?

My friend implored me to trust “God, not guns”. Very well, then. I therefore reject as unbiblical the notion that forbidding people to own certain inanimate objects will prevent bad things from happening. And, if anything, gun control means totally unwarranted reliance not on God, but on the most well-armed and deadly segment of any society: its government.