The National Rifle Association began its annual meeting today with former President Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence as speakers who denied the need for more restrictive gun laws. Meeting in Indiana–Pence’s home state where he was governor in 2013-2017 before becoming Trump’s vice-presidential running mate–the former governor received a mix of applause and boos from these NRA members, most of whom have surely been Trump supporters. The boos were because Pence had refused to succumb to Trump’s demand that Pence reject the electoral count in Biden’s favor on Certification Day, on January 6th, when the Capitol riot occurred.
But Pence received applause when he asserted in his speech, “We don’t need gun control. We need crime control.” Yet on Monday, 115 miles away from this NRA meeting, a mass shooting with an AR 15 assault weapon in a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, by a disgruntled employee had resulted in five deaths and eight injuries. And about 300 miles away the previous week, a mass shooting with an AR 15 occurred at a Christian grade school that resulted in three children and three adults killed in Nashville, Tennessee.
And Trump later said in his speech regarding this increasing number of mass shootings with handguns and assault rifles, “This is not a gun problem. This is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem this is a spiritual problem.” Again, it was what these NRA members wanted to hear–music to their ears. Protect our gun rights, even the use of assault rifles such as AR 15s.
Wrong! Guns need to be further restricted to decrease gun violence. And AR 15s should be banned, as they used to be. It’s very simple. It’s not rocket science.
Just compare gun violence in the U.S. with that of other nations. We have more guns per person than any other advanced country, and that is why we have more gun violence. It’s very simple. The U.S. has more than one gun per person, which is way more than almost all nations have. You think the U.S. has way more crazy people, more psychopaths, more social misfits than other countries do, and that’s why we have more gun violence, which is what Trump implies? Baloney! Trump says it’s a spiritual problem. What does that mean? More people still attend church in the U.S. than in any other advanced country, as it has always been.
It’s very simple. You give people more opportunity to do evil, and they will do more evil. You take away laws, and people will do more evil. We need stricter gun laws to keep more people from hurting and killing other people.
Why does the Bible say God brought a flood upon the earth to drown so many people in the days of Noah? The text says twice that “the earth was/is filled with violence,” emphasizing its gravity (Genesis 6.11-12 NRSV). The account adds, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (v. 5). So, God destroyed civilization to repopulate it with righteous Noah and his family.
Genesis later relates that people gathered in “the land of Shinar,” which was in Mesopotamia, “to build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11. 2, 4). Yet God had told Noah and his family, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 9.1). And he later added, “be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it” (v. 7). Thus, this gathering in the land of Shinar to build a city and tower to make of name for themselves was clearly against this divine prerogative.
Then we read concerning those in Shinar, “The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they prpose to do will now be impossible for them'” (Gen 11.6). Then we read that God confounded their language. The result was, “So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth” (vv. 8-9).
So, God said that with one language that civilization would be unrestricted in in doing whatever it wanted to do, which would have been more evil just as in the days of Noah. And God stopped them from doing it by restricting them, just as people today should be restricted in killing more and more people because there are more and more guns. It’s as simple as that.
Folks, this increase in the means that people have to kill each other will someday be reduced drastically, and I’m talking about before Jesus comes back. The prophet Ezekiel informs us that at the end of the age, the Antichrist, who will have the title “Gog,” will gather the militaries of the world to invade the nation of Israel to wipe it off the face of the earth (Ezekiel 38–39). Many people call this Armageddon, which is a misnomer. But Ezekiel informs us most meticulously about what type of weapons they will use. They will ride horses “in full armor, a great company, all of them with shield and buckler, wielding swords” (Eze 38.4).
Many Bible readers and even its teachers interpret these weapons non-literally. But the text does not allow this for several reasons. One is that when this war is over, Ezekiel tells us, “Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them–bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, handpikes, and spears–and they will make fires of them for seven years” (Eze 39.9). Seven years! That must be a lot of weapons. Notice the prophet had said that the invaders’ arsenal of weaponry would include swords; yet he does not say the Israelis will afterwards make fired with the swords. Rather, he implies they will burn those weapons that are made of wood or that have a major component of wood.
So, for these invaders to use primitive armaments, as Ezekiel prophesies, it requires that there will be no modern weapons of warfare available to them. That’s right! The world will have previously disarmed itself of not only weapons of mass destruction, but all modern weaponry. Why? Apparently, human beings will wise up and realize that having these increasingly destructive weapons is not working for civilization, so that they will get rid of them. Obviously, such an undertaking will take time. And it will require surveillance that prevents the manufacturing of these weapons. But Ezekiel indicates that it will happen. There is no other way to understand this. Its that simple. Those weapons that the prophet foresees must be understood literally.
The prophet Joel informs likewise of this time of the end. He relates the call to war by Israel’s enemies by saying, “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the warriors. Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears” (Joel 3.9-10). One of the favorites Bible verses embraced by the nations of the world, which is enshrined just outside the headquarters of the United Nations, is from the prophet Isaiah. He proclaims concerning the Bible’s predicted utopian age, “Out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2.4; cf. Micah 4.3). These weapons also should be understood literally. And these are the weapons Ezekiel prophesies about as well.
What’s my point? The world community eventually will wise up and get rid of all of its advanced weapons that can kill so many people in order to restrict this insane killing. We should take note of it now and realize that this is the future and that it will indeed happen. So, we should wise up and get on with it by restricting these easier and easier means of killing more and more people until we get rid of all of them. Its very simple to understand even though it will be hard to do. Granted, it will take time. But it will happen because God has said so through his holy prophets long ago.
[See other such posts by Kermit Zarley: “The Political Right Says, ‘Guns Don’t Kill People.’” “Saying ‘Guns Don’t Kill People’ Is Stupid.” “Too Many Guns.” “Someday, No More Guns.”]
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