When Liberty Enslaves: Gun Violence

Above picture is from Sutherland Church website (http://www.ssfb.net)

“The Sutherland Springs church shooting occurred on November 5, 2017, when Devin Patrick Kelley perpetrated a mass shooting at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church. Kelley killed 26 people and wounded 22 others, before killing himself. The attack is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the state of Texas, and the fifth-deadliest in the United States. It was the deadliest shooting in an American church, surpassing the Charleston church shooting of 2015.

Kelley was prohibited by law from purchasing or possessing firearms and ammunition due to a domestic violence conviction in a court-martial while in the United States Air Force. The Air Force failed to record the conviction in the FBI National Crime Information Center database, which is used by the National Instant Check System  to flag prohibited purchases. The error prompted the Air Force to begin a review.”

[The preceding excerpt is taken from Wikipedia (The Free Encyclopedia); Subject: Sutherland Springs church shooting.]

This type of mass murder will not be eliminated, or even slow the rate of reoccurrence, by relying on various agencies to comply with criminal reporting requirements. Relying solely on the administrative oversight of the required reporting of gun purchases is not an effective strategy to turn around this epidemic of violence in our nation. It would be similar to fighting the recent pandemic with accurate information about the disease but not having a vaccine to actually resist its spread. To stop this trend of gun violence in our country we need both reliable information and the appropriate preventative measures (i.e., banning automatic weapons, limits in the types and amounts of ammunition purchases, and age restrictions) put in place to actually stop the killing.

12-year-old Evelyn Holcomb pictured above (curtesy of Washington Post) was shielded during the shooting at Sutherland Church by her pregnant mother. Her mother was killed along with Evelyn’s three siblings and grandparents during the siege that day. Wind chimes that her mother hung from a tree in the above picture still tinkle in the breeze outside their home. Loud noises still scare her, a symptom of the trauma experienced. When Evelyn and her dad go to the cemetery, they have nine graves to visit. Her dad lost, in addition to his pregnant wife and three children, both his parents, his brother and his niece in the attack.

Pictured above is Morgan Workman who has endured years of weekly treatments since the shooting at Sutherland Church for lead poisoning from the bullet fragments that remain embedded in her body. In addition she takes dozens of pills every day to manage her symptoms. (Picture curtesy of the Washington Post)

The day of the incident the shooter entered Sutherland church wielding a ranger AR-556 rifle. It is believed he was targeting some relatives because of an ongoing “domestic situation” but they were not in attendance that day. The shooter stalked the church aisles, shooting people at point blank range. He fired 196 times inside the church in 16 separate bursts. He fired 450 military-grade bullets, each of which left the barrel at a velocity of around 3,200 feet a second.

Doctors who treated the victims likened the wounds to those that are received on a battlefield. That is, high velocity bullets are designed to kill by ripping chunks of flesh away on impact. All that remains are bone and skin with parts missing. First responders at the scene described it as entering a war zone where everyone was already dead. It was like a bomb had been detonated and pieces of people were everywhere.

(Preceding information on Sutherland Church shooting was taken from “A Tragedy Without End” by Silvia Foster-Frau and Holly Bailey with photography by Lisa Krantz; Washington Post , Sunday April 2, 2023)

The weapons used in Sutherland that day were tactical weapons that are designed to be used by soldiers in war. Innocent civilians, children and babies do not stand a chance of survival except by the heroic sacrifices of others putting themselves in harms way by taking the bullets intended for their loved ones.

The families mentioned previously and all the others that were impacted that day in 2017 are still enslaved by the loss of loved ones, dealing with long term injuries, and being haunted by the memories from over five years ago. This event has become obscured in our memories by the dozens of shootings that have occurred in our nation since. In the wake of those shootings are untold numbers of similar consequences like those at Sutherland Church.

Our nation is enslaved by the prevailing gun violence that is permitted to exist because of political preferences that are justified by perceived Constitutional rights. I do not understand how anyone can think the founding fathers of our nation intended the American people to be subjected to this type of violence when they penned our Constitution and its supporting amendments. A read of the Constitution’s opening paragraph will clearly illustrate that the authors desired a different outcome. It reads as follows.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for a common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves, and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Our founding fathers desired the people of this nation to live in a liberty of life where homes were tranquil (peaceful), where people felt safe, and that the laws of the land were for the benefit of the general welfare of all people. This was the desire for themselves, their families and for us as well (their posterity). I contend that none of those elements (peace, safety, security) exist in the homes and the lives of the people in our nation that have been subject to these mass shootings in our churches, schools, and streets.

Pictured above is a tiger in the Philadelphia Zoo. It was as close to a wild animal of this size as I ever wanted to get and hopefully ever will. I had the liberty to enjoy that experience of looking at this magnificent animal up close because I am afforded that pleasure while being protected from any harm that it could cause to me, my family or anyone else in the vicinity. It would make no sense to let this animal, capable of great harm, it’s liberty to move around the city of Philadelphia. Yet we do not have the same reasoning when it comes to access to guns. We continue to let much more dangerous capabilities than this tiger roam freely in our streets, churches, malls and public schools. We refuse to construct the necessary controls and protections when it comes to guns that would allow gun owners the freedom to use their weapons of choice but protect the general population. Consequently our country remains enslaved to gun violence caused by of the liberty of some.

So how does our faith respond to this dilemma? People of faith can build an argument either for or against guns depending on their view of faith. Many people of faith are content with unrestricted access to guns and unlimited amounts of ammunition as defense to their family, faith and community. Many people of faith are more than willing to give up some of our liberties with regard to guns for the sake of the greater good.

People of faith have different views of the bible and it’s divine inspiration. My view of scripture is that it is the closest written guidance we have in this life which gives us some idea about the mind and heart of God. In this instance I believe we get a sense of how God views our current situation with regard to guns in the book of Galatians.

The apostle Paul is writing to the Galatians about the liberty in our faith. He simply states in the text that we are free to choose in these grey areas of life where we view circumstances differently, but he gives the following caution. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”(Galatians 6:7) In other words, if we want guns to proliferate our society we will reap the consequences of that. It is our choice. Referring back to our metaphor of the Tiger it means that if we choose to let the tiger run loose in our streets, he will do what comes natural to him and many will suffer because of it. If we let the proliferation of guns and their unlimited capability continue in our society we will continue to see innocent people die on our streets, schools and churches. It is our choice to let this particular tiger run free until we elect officials that will change our environment.

As I write this piece it happens to be on the occasion of Good Friday. The picture above was taken on our first trip to Italy several years ago. The Pieta by Michelangelo depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Undoubtedly this is one of the most celebrated days of our faith for it was the day Christ sacrificed His physical life on earth for our redemptive life in the future. Of equal value in our faith is the belief in His resurrection from the grave a few days later. His physical resurrection is a metaphor for our individual resurrection of new life in our faith in Christ.

As powerful and meaningful as these two events are in the life of a Christian’s faith, I believe another event that preceded these by a few days is a better example of how the heart of God responds to the relentless acts of violence and death in our nation due to guns. The event in John 11:35 describes Jesus crying at the gravesite of a close friend. The account continues with Christ calling forth the dead body from his grave and ordering those who were witnessing the miracle to unwrap the man from his grave clothes to set him free. The question that needs to be examined is why was Jesus crying? Why would he be overcome with emotion knowing full well He was about to raise His friend from the dead? What’s more, He knew that He would also be rising from the dead in a few days. He had no fear of death because of His power over death and the grave, so why the tears?

I believe Jesus was moved to tears because He saw the mourning of the relatives and friends at the gravesite of the deceased even several days after his death. I believe Jesus then and now identifies with that pain and suffering that each of us feel when a loved one passes from this life to the next. Even though I sat in my mother’s hospital room for several days while she was passing, when the moment came I cried. No matter how prepared we think we are with the death of a loved one, it is still a traumatic event. I cannot imagine the pain involved when a wife, husband, child or parent is murdered by an automatic weapon while attending church or shopping or while a child is at school. I believe no matter how much we hurt, the heart of God hurts more watching His creation destroy one another .

I can only assume that any person of faith that advocates this continued freedom of guns (and the subsequent experiences of mass murder) does not fully understand the conflict that continued support presents to our faith. That is, at the heart of our faith is the sacrifice of our God of His own son to spare the sting of death for us. Moreover, scripture reveals a heart of God that cries with us when we mourn the death of loved ones. Knowing these things about our faith would make it unacceptable for anyone of faith to continue to embrace an unrestricted liberty in guns in our nation. The common reaction to our faith should be to pray, talk to our friends, and vote in such a manner that we are doing all we can to eliminate this scourge from our nation. I believe then our actions would align with our faith and the heart of God.