.
"He that hath no sword, let
him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke
22:36 KJV)
Most of us are aware that the
heroic actions of a brave woman at the New Life Church
in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few days ago saved the
lives of perhaps scores, or even hundreds, of people.
However, her bravery would not have counted for much had
she not been armed.
On that fateful December Sunday, a
man by the name of Matthew Murray entered the church
armed to the teeth. According to press reports, he was
armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, some
smoke grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of
ammunition.
By the time Murray arrived in the
Colorado Springs church, he had already killed four
people: two at a missionary training center miles away,
and two in the church parking lot. He had wounded
several others. No one realized it at the time, but the
man was a serial killer in the midst of a rampage. He
doubtless planned to kill as many people as he could, as
there were thousands of people inside the church. Had
there not been an armed citizen in the church house, the
death toll would have been massive.
According to church spokesmen, the
congregation has over a dozen members who volunteered to
serve as security personnel for the church.
Jeanne Assam was one of those volunteers.
A former police officer, Assam
said, "I saw him [Murray] coming through the doors,
and I took cover, and I waited for him to get closer. I
came out of cover, I identified myself and engaged him
and took him down."[Gunman
Planned to Kill More, Officials Say, By Karl
Vick and William Branigin, Washington Post,
December 11, 2007]
Murray died in the exchange.
Although Assam shot him several times with her 9mm
pistol, the coroner`s office said that Murray actually
succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After being
incapacitated by Assam`s gunfire, Murray apparently
turned one of his weapons on himself.
Chalk one up for the good guys, or
in this case,
good gals.
Have you noticed how the media
dropped the Colorado story as soon as it was discovered
that a lawfully armed citizen ended the potential
massacre by using her own handgun? Had the killer been
successful in
murdering scores of people, however, it would have
been at the top of the news for weeks. As it is, the
story is already buried in the dungeon section of the
news, if it is in the news at all.
One thing the national news media
will always ignore is the practice of lawful
self-defense. For example, most people are probably not
aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm
to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY
YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This
means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more
often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to
take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense
cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending
themselves against sexual assault. And in less than
eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually
fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere
presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from
occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett
(R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to
Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four
times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.
John Lott, senior research
scientist at the University of Maryland, agrees with
Bartlett. His book More Guns, Less Crime
documents the fact that—instead of being a cause of
crime—firearms in the hands of private citizens are
actually a major deterrent to crime.
Another fact conveniently ignored
by the major media is the connection between wanton
killings and so-called "gun-free" zones. For an
example of this, look no further than the
Virginia Tech massacre. In spite of Virginia state
laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons for
self-defense, Virginia Tech forbade its students and
faculty from carrying weapons for
self-defense on campus.
Had a student or faculty member
been armed—as was Ms. Assam in the Colorado Springs
attack—no doubt many, if not most, of the Virginia Tech
victims would not have died.
Obviously, bad guys do not pay any
attention to
"gun-free" zones,
except to note that such zones create a free-killing
environment.
Is it any wonder that those states
and cities with the most restrictive gun control laws
tend to also be home to the highest crime rates? The old
saying is still true. "When guns are outlawed, only
outlaws will have guns." There is another saying I
like even better. "When guns are outlawed, I will be
an outlaw."
Even our Lord understood and
validated the right of every person to arm themselves
for personal self-defense. He said, "He that hath no
sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke
22:36 KJV) The
old Roman sword was the First Century equivalent of
a modern handgun. It was the most practical and
convenient form of self-defense available at that time.
Also, please note that at least two of Jesus` disciples
(one of whom was Simon Peter) were in the habit of
carrying their own personal swords, and Jesus never
rebuked them. (See
Luke 22:38.)
Jesus also acknowledged, "When a
strong man ARMED [emphasis added] keepeth his
palace, his goods are in peace." (Luke
11:21)
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said,
emphatically, "But if any provide not for his own,
and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied
the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (I
Tim. 5:8) Does "not providing for his own"
include not providing protection? Of course it does.
The right and, yes, obligation of
personal self-defense is entrenched in both Christian
and American tradition. People who would deny citizens
the right to arm themselves are either naïvely ignorant
or deliberately duplicitous. As Robert Heinlein said,
"An armed society is a polite society."
America`s Founding Fathers agreed
with Heinlein. Thomas Jefferson said, "No
free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
He
also said, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms
. . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things
worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants;
they serve rather to encourage than to prevent
homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man."
Samuel Adams said, "[T]he said
Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize
Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or
the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of
the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from
keeping their own arms."
James Madison said, "To preserve
liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people
always possess arms."
Thomas Paine
said, "[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and
plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as
well as property . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were
the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
George Washington called the
private collections of arms "the people`s liberty`s
teeth."
America must always preserve the
right to keep and bear arms. To do any less is to invite
oppression and tyranny, not to mention acts of violence.
Some years back, Alan Rice of the
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)
wrote, "Since 1900 at least seven major genocides
have occurred resulting in the murder of 50-60 million
people:
*Ottoman Turkey, 1915-17; 1-1.5 million Armenians
murdered; *Soviet Union, 1929-53; 20 million
anti-Communists and anti-Stalinists murdered; *Nazi
Germany & Occupied Europe, 1933-45; 13 million Jews,
Gypsies, and Anti-Nazis murdered; *China, 1949-52,
1957-60 & 1966-1976; 20 million anti-Communists
murdered; *Guatemala, 1960-1981; 100,000 Mayan Indians
murdered; *Uganda, 1971-1979; 300,000 Christians and
Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered; *Cambodia,
1975-1979; 1 million murdered."
Rice continued to say,
"In all
seven of the genocides summarized above, gun control
laws were in force before the genocide occurred, in some
cases decades before. In five of the seven genocides,
the lethal law, the gun control law was in force before
the genocide regime took power."
Rice also said, "Gun control
laws are usually enacted during a crisis or a perceived
crisis." He then said,
"Government officials, not hate groups or common
criminals, were responsible for these seven genocides.
In most of these cases the murder victims outnumbered
their murderers; yet they were powerless to defend
themselves because they were disarmed."
Do the math yourself. Absent
an armed citizen, 32 innocent people
lost their lives at Virginia Tech, while the
presence of one armed citizen resulted in two innocent
deaths in Colorado Springs. Furthermore, the presence of
over 200 million firearms in the possession of the
American people has done more to keep America free than
any other human element—bar none!
Therefore, to help keep your family
safe and your country free, go buy a gun.
Dr. Chuck Baldwin is the
pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola,
Florida. He hosts a
weekly radio show. His
website is
here.
