Buy A Gun
By Chuck Baldwin
December 14, 2007
This column is archived at
"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." 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 naпvely 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 1 armed citizen
resulted in 2 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.
(c) Chuck Baldwin
