I was minding my own business this morning when I received an email from my Senator—- who is Rand Paul. In just about his first act in office as a newly minted Senator he decided to rant and rave because President Obama has banned the re-importing of about a million antique M1 rifles. It appears that South Korea would like to give us back these antiques— so gun collectors at gun shows can sell them all over the U.S. and make a profit. Just what America needs— more guns sold cheaply.
One wonders if Rand Paul bothered to ask whether the gun manufacturers in America really want the market flooded with a million of these old guns? Is that really good for new gun sales? Probably not. In any case, Rand Paul had the gall in this email message to suggest that somehow someway what our President did was a violation of our right to bear arms. Really? Really?
President Obama hasn’t banned gun sales in America has he? He hasn’t had any Democrats sponsor a bill to make it impossible for private citizens to buy arms has he? No, he hasn’t. He has just prevented the importing of old used guns. Hooray for common sense. We don’t need any more guns in this country and we certainly don’t need to import them. We have plenty of new and used guns EVERYWHERE in this country.
And here is where I say, I am not happy with my Senator, who claims to be a Christian, suggesting that our President is being unpatriotic in what he did. I don’t really think it is ethical to gin up the gun lobby people and gun toting Americans because of this single act. Frankly, America doesn’t need any more mementos of war. What it needs is more reminders that ‘blessed are the peacemakers’ (and no, Jesus was not making a euphemistic reference to a really large gun). What it needs is less guns and more strict gun control laws so the Gabrielle Giffords of this world don’t get shot in the line of duty, as public servants, by crazy people toting guns that they can too easily buy at all sorts of stores in America. Frankly I am on the side of the police on this issue. We need much more strict gun control laws in this country, so our police actually have a fighting chance against drug barons and all sorts of other people who wish to do us harm.
I think Rand Paul needs to spend less of my Kentucky tax dollars on such issues, trying to raise money for the NRA, and more on figuring out what makes for peace in our country, and less violence. I think he needs to spend a little more time reading the Sermon on the Mount and perhaps watching the movie Witness. Then he can get back to me about his moral outrage at the Presidential decision to not allow the importing of a million old guns. Frankly, Rand has no right or rights to be outraged about this decision, and as a Christian, he should have applauded it. It’s time to start beating some of those swords of ours into plowshares anyway.
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