GOD, COUNTRY, FREEDOM, AND THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

Dana Loesch, former writer and editor and spokesperson for the NRA, tweeted out this message on Monday morning, May 7th:

New record attendance for #NRAAM:   87,154 law-abiding attendees over the three-day weekend in Dallas. #2A

The NRA had just completed it’s annual meeting in Dallas.  President Trump and VP Pence were among the many well-known people in attendance.  It is important to remember that the NRA contributed $11,438,118 to the 2016 Trump campaign.  The Huffington Post reports that the NRA spent a total of $419 million during the 2016 election year. 

YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!

A significant constituency at the meeting were those identifying as Evangelical Christians.  Sunday morning’s prayer breakfast was telling in terms of the enmeshment of evangelical faith and guns.  Former all-star MLB player, Adam LaRoche, was giving a testimony. 15 minutes into it he took off his sweater to reveal a black tee shirt that read:

Jesus loves me and my guns.

The attendees gave their loud acclamation.  Oliver North – yes, that Oliver North, controversial figure from the Iran contra-affair and political conservative – is the heir apparent to lead the NRA.  In a rousing 45-minute speech he mixed faith and guns as the divine birthright of American freedom.   Joe Gregory, a charter member of the NRA’s Golden Ring of Freedom, which consists of donors who give $1,000,000 or more to the NRA, opened the breakfast with this prayer:

Lord, we put our faith and trust in you and not in governments or militaries or our own technology or even the strength of our own arms.  Still, we humbly ask you to direct and bless our efforts against those who would seek to take away those freedoms.  Empower us to protect the peace of our homes and ensure the safety of those defending the homeland overseas and deliver us from despots of tyranny.

When the breakfast was over, a reporter asked an organizer why there were no prayers for those killed by gun violence and no mention of the mass shootings.  The organizer replied, “It must have been an oversight.”

And so it was – God, country, freedom, and the right to bear arms.  Any attempt to challenge that covenant is seen as coming from the Evil One.  Keynoter LaRoche reminded everybody that Jesus said in Matthew 10:34,

I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

A STUBBORN STATUS QUO

Since February 14 when Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 and wounding 17 more, making it the deadliest school massacre, we have seen movements rise up all across this country.  There have been social media campaigns, organized marches, school walk-outs, mass marches on Washington, testimonies before congress, heart-rending speeches by kids from Parkland, and pleas from other victims of gun violence to our elected leaders to do something.  This country has seen the largest ground swell of protests against gun violence and current gun laws since December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children, ages 6 and 7, at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.  The results of the protests and the outrage this time around is about the same after all the noise following Sandy Hook died down.  Basically, no change in the status quo.

USAMERICA IDOLATRY – GUNS ARE OUR GOLDEN CALF

When it comes to a love affair with guns, USAmerica’s gun culture is certainly an outlier among developed countries and even among all.  Consider these sobering facts:

• Worldwide, there are an estimated 650 million civilian-owned guns. The U.S. population is 5% of the world population; yet, USAmericans own 48% of all guns.  That’s almost 50%!
• In terms of private gun ownership, the top ten per capita gun-owning countries are: U.S.A., Yemen, Switzerland, Finland, Serbia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Uruguay, and Sweden.  The U.S. has 90 guns per 100 people.  10th place Sweden has 31; thus, per capita gun ownership in the U.S. is 3 times that of Sweden.  2nd place Yemen has 55 guns per 100 people.  In other words, gun ownership in the USAmerica is 64% higher than in 2nd place Yemen!
• The homicide rate by firearm in USAmerica is such an outlier among developed countries that our homicide rate is almost 4 times that of 2nd place Switzerland and over 21 times the rate in Australia.    
• Annual deaths by gun violence for persons 15-29 now exceed deaths in vehicle-related deaths, 11,947 versus 10,881 (2016).  Only deaths by drugs exceeds deaths by firearms.
• From 1966 to 2012, USAmerica ranked number one in mass shootings with 90.  A mass shooting is defined by 4+ victims, not counting the shooter.  The Philippines was 2nd with 18, followed by Russia with 15, Yemen with 11, and France with 10. 
• Mass shootings for 2014 = 100.  2015 = 135.  2016 = 142.  2017 = 154.  2018 is on pace to break 2017’s pace.
• As of April 20, 2018, on the 19th anniversary of “Columbine,” there had already been 20 school shootings in USAmerica.  That’s 1.25 per week.
• From 1982 until the present, 79% of the killers in mass shootings obtained the weapons legally.
• The general weapon of choice in mass shootings is an AR-15 or equivalent.
• How many assault rifles are in the United States? We do not know.  Lobbying by the NRA has prevented there being a gun registry in USAmerica.

AN INCONVIENIENT TRUTH OR A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Mass shootings are primarily a white male problem.  Since 1982, women represent half of the casualties in mass shootings; yet, only three mass shootings were perpetuated by a woman.  And the race of the males is almost overwhelmingly white.  So the perpetrators of these hideous crimes of mass carnage are not the “murderers, rapists, and criminals” coming from “shithole countries.”  They are white USAmericans.  If they were of another ethic group, then there would have been long ago the labeling of the them as “terrorists.”  But because they are white males we choose to focus on things like mental health rather than the heart of the matter.  The United States does not have the market cornered on mental health issues; nor do men. 

WHY?

So why are white men committing mass murders?  Is it because of a catastrophic sense of male entitlement that drives the desire to kill?  30% of mass shooting occur in the workplace.  Is it anger at them, or those people who are taking over our country?  And what about those who murder in our schools?  What is the anger and entitlement that drive them?  

Whatever the reason there is no denying that we have a culture in this country that worships men with guns.

THE CHURCH’S WITNESS

The alliance of faith, patriotism, and guns is not of Jesus.  It is of Emperor Constantine.  Stay tuned for the next blog when I will explore the church’s witness in the midst of our gun culture.

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,