Guest Opinion: Gun Control - What Would Jesus Do? Comments
The Church has always held that it is legitimate to defend one's life and/or property against an unjust aggressor, and it is equally legitimate to defend someone else's life and/or property on the same grounds, even if that defense were to result in the loss of the aggressor's life.Contrary to the assertions of the anti-gun folks, "gun-free zone" legislation is actually counterproductive, and potentially lethal to those it is designed to protect. Continue Reading
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I think this issue is a relatively easy one to solve. Don't restrict ownership of guns. Require background checks on ALL sales and ALL transfers. And if a gun is used in a commission of a crime, then punish the criminal for the act, and the gun owner who allowed his gun to be stolen (if it was in fact stolen). I know so many people who own guns and have no safety precautions whatsoever. If the homeowner cannot demonstrate that these were locked up in a safe, then they should be punished as well. Then every owner can decide for themselves how fast and loose they want to play with gun ownership.
The harder part of this issue is gettng serious about examining the impact of pschological drugs in our country as well as the glorification of violence. We can't have millions of guns in circulation and not exepect for their to be problems just like we can't have the filth we have on tv like ponorgrapy and not expect problems. If we just have to have these things, then we have to accept what comes with them....good and the bad.
KarlDVH, if you do not agree with the right to self-defense then you are definitely in the minority. The Catholic Church sees no problem with self-defense. Is your beef with the Church? You are on a Catholic website in case you didn’t know. Nobody’s forcing you to own a gun against your will. If you do not think that we should have the right to bear arms, that’s too bad because it is in the Constitution and was put there to make sure the people always had a way to put things right should our government ever get too off track. I see no problem with being a pro-life Catholic and owning guns but you seem to see gun owners as criminals who go around shooting people at random. Most gun owners I know are God-fearing Christians who never want to shoot anybody. Maybe you should find you nearest shooting range and go meet a few people, maybe even try shooting a gun or two, you might just change your mind.
Thank you DLL, but I'm still confused. I thought that a martyr was someone who died for the faith, which is why I might be in this state. So, let's just say someone breaks into my house, actually let me recount an incident that happened to me last yr. We had just purchased and moved into our first home. At the time I was volunteering at a homeless shelter in town working at their school. What I didn't know was that one of the clients there had followed me home on a previous occasion so when some guy knocked on the door, I answered, but I also had the security door still locked. He said that my husband had called for a problem with our wifi service. While I was speaking with him and wondering why my husband hadn't told me because I thought everything was working fine, I heard this crashing coming from the kitchen, then someone screaming! I ran back to that room to see my dog latched onto another man, blood everywhere and a few feet from this scene a gun that he had dropped when the dog grabbed him. It all happened so fast that even tho I had a gun in the house, I didn't have time to access it. So while one was keeping me busy at the front door, the other was coming in the back. Both, I later learned, were registered sex offenders. The sheriff's deputies said that I should thank God that that dog was there and that he reacted the way he did, otherwise, it would not have gone well for me. So, outside of the fact that I highly recommend that everyone have a dog (even a little one to sound an alarm, tho in my book German Shepherds rock!), my question is : say the dog had not been there and I had not defended myself, would that have made me a martyr? or giving up without a fight, would that have been a passive sort of suicide? If we value all life, shouldn't we then value our own enough to defend ourselves as well? (not to mention that I was pregnant at the time) . I've been struggling with this since this first happened. I see both sides of the argument and don't see that there is one right answer. Thanks, Emma
Could someone point to the part where Jesus says it's ok to kill a human being in order to save your own hide?
Sorry my comment was more or less to Emma not S Hubble. Suicide is a poor choice,suicide is the same as abortion,another poor choice. Life is precious. God made life to be a precious gift of love for each of us and as a gift to be shared as each person is a life lived in service to all.
S Hubble---- martyrdom? Try this example;truth:Jesus being nailed to the cross because his death was a deliberate plan by the religious and political elite to murder as well as end his influence among those who admired him and had faith in him? ----_ Suicide? Speculate: Imagine; if that would have been Jesus,same scenario trying: to nail himself to the cross for an ego satisfying effect,suicide,which of coarse Jesus did not do,or as Judas did,who hung himself to a tree for betraying Jesus,not believing that it was possible,and it was possible,to repent of the sin,which in essence,if suicide is the choice,that choice would have made the suicide a lesson of futility,to no effect at all. The real death,suicide,to be dead by ones own hand,is a choice to die in ones own sins,confirmed in ones own sins.
When a madman plans and is successful,in murdering innocents in a mass murder,then turns the weapon on himself and kills himself,from an eternal perspective,I can only speculate that the mass murderer was,in truth,the only one who really,actually,died from a standpoint eternally,that persons soul is dead. The innocents were martyred as they were murdered,not choosing this abusive intentional homicide. This is why If one were to choose to do abortions for a living, even though abortion is legal,the actual suicide is of the chooser,who chooses to do abortions and murder is of the abortionist,of their very own-soul, not of the souls of the poor aborted ones,murdered,as they are martyrs.
Jesus healed the soldier's ear because, had he not, the soldiers would have had to revenge that injury. That would have interfered with His plan for Peter. "Turn the other cheek " refers to revenge. If I or a loved one is killed, I would pray for strength to forgive rather than seek revenge. To do so perpetuates violence. However, there's a big difference between self defense and revenge killings.
What about Matthew 25.52? Jesus says more to Peter than just for him to put his sword away because it's interfering with his mission: "Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. *For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.*" (ESV)
If Jesus told Peter to put away his sword after Peter cut of the ear of the soldier in the garden of Gethsemane only to keep Peter from thwarting His mission, why did Jesus take the time to turn and heal the soldier?
Could someone please explain the difference between martyrdom and suicide? If we have a classification "suicide by cop " couldn't we also say that a person not willing to protect their own life from an armed assailant is passively committing suicide? I grew up in East LA and I have to say that it must be a very different part of LA than referred to here by another commenter. Florence /Compton thereabouts. I learned at a very youn age that the safest area in my house was the bathtub! Why? First, it was farthest from the street and secondly, the porcelain offered protection from gunfire! What troubles me most about this discussion is not gun control. What bothers me most is that there has been no action and no outcry in this country until the victims were from upper middle class families. Where were the cries to action and the calls for non -violence before now? Those of us who grew up seeing our friends and family members die learned at a very young age that if we wanted to reach adulthood that we would have to defend ourselves. Now, we're to believe that if we trust the system, the government will protect us? Sorry, I learned to recognize someone "running game " before I was ten yrs. old! This is nothing but a bunch of pompous arses running game!!! What would Jesus do? Jesus would have been speaking out for the "least of these " long before now!!