Trust History, NOT Hysteria

With all due respect to the Offices of our Elected, Appointed, and Hired Officials in all levels of Local, State and Federal Government, within these United States of America, I present these facts for your honest consideration:

1.     Despite more than 100 years of adding anti-gun laws (ref: NY State Sullivan Act), hundreds and thousands of anti-gun laws, on the books of our Nation, have not stopped the sin-nature of people from attacking and killing each other with anything at hand, including bare hands.

2.     FBI data has shown that, for every act of gun related violence there are three times as many violent crimes (against persons) that are committed without any firearm.

3.     IF one studies violence around the world and the USA, our nation does NOT have the highest per capita gun violence rate, and is far from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE.

4.     IF one reads the thorough research done for Lott’s book, “More Guns, Less Crime”, one discovers that, in locales where there is a higher proportion of unrestricted ownership of firearms, by law-abiding citizens, including weapons of the owners’ choice, there are correspondingly lower violent crime rates against persons.

5.     Over 100 years of accumulated anti-gun laws do NOT call for the passage of more anti-gun laws: guns are NOT the problem; our sin nature is the problem. Law exposes guilt and wrong motivations, but, as the Bible has proven for eons, while Law exposes and condemns sin, Law doesn’t stop sin, nor does Law change people's sin nature. Only repentance toward God can do the latter.

6.     Ignorance of God's Word, ignorance of human nature, ignorance of history, and ignorance of responsible research, coupled with fear, moral corruption, and political convenience, are the biggest drivers of the anti-gun fever in the USA, and abroad. When looking at the history of the rise and fall of dictators, history clearly shows that power-hungry people seldom want their subjects to keep and bear arms for responsible self-defense based on one's spiritual and personal conscience.

7.     The historical rise and fall of cultures and persons of power show that there is no police force or army, in this world, big enough to stop people’s sin and violence against each other. Just take an honest look at all the butchery that takes place around the world, with and without guns, no matter how many despotic anti-firearm regulations are dictated or enacted.

8.    Honest historical research shows that laws do not stop people from sinning violently against each other, whether with or without firearms. High density, U.S. locales with THE MOST stringent anti-gun laws (e.g. Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., including other U.S. locales with highly restrictive anti-gun laws) alternatingly bear the title of highest per capita anti-personnel gun violence (despite all the stringent anti-gun laws in those communities). Similar violence, and worse, is true in other anti-gun countries, because law-abiding citizens are NOT ‘allowed’ to own guns, much less defend themselves with firearms. Yet, gun murders proliferate widely in those restrictive environments. Why? Because, when law abiding citizens are not allowed to own the means to attempt to defend themselves, only the outlaws have weapons. That means that everyone in that environment is a potential target and victim, EXCEPT for the criminals who illegally own weapons.

9.     Only a strong internalized personal spiritual or moral "compass" can stop people from attacking and killing each other. Without that internal "compass" our sin nature will usually choose what is pleasing, satisfying, or fulfilling our sinful fantasies, and there are not enough police or prison cells to lock up and guard everyone who is a sinner by nature... because we are all sinners. Therefore, in recognition of the inability of Law to stop people from killing each other, as our Constitution recognizes, I most strenuously urge you to carefully weigh all existing and upcoming legislation, including weapons related proposals, and that you throw out everything that goes against God's Word and against our U.S. Constitution.

10.  In spite of public, political, personal, or media hype, fear, ignorance, or paranoia, ONLY a person's motives and usage of any given weapon are the REAL issue. There is no firearms problem, because we cannot rationally blame inanimate objects. It is NOT a problem of who has made a weapon or what kind of weapon was made. There is no rational reason to infringe on invention or legitimate commerce among law-abiding citizens or businesses so long as our Constitution and Bill of Rights have not been violated. Responsible invention, labor, and commerce are appropriate human conduct, whether the product be ice cream, automobiles, printing presses, the internet, or firearms (just as Colt, Winchester, Ruger, Ford, Baskin-Robbins, and many other inventors started their businesses). It is neither responsible nor sane to blame inanimate objects instead of holding end users and their motives accountable and responsible for their sinful and criminal actions. People need to stop blaming objects for sin, instead of holding abusers responsible for their personal choices and actions. Sadly, those who blame objects for human sin wallow in their hypocrisy because they do not demonstrate an equally hostile attitude or behavior toward all inanimate things that people use to inflict suffering and death upon each other. IF those who blame inanimate objects for human sin were to turn from their hypocrisy and make themselves credible, then the rest of us should see them level equally zealous blame and a horrific cry for bans and the cutting off the use of all the hands, automobiles, and computers that have been used in millions of injuries and deaths (and ID thefts) that have occurred as the result of people abusing their hands, automobiles, and computers. Why do such hypocrites insist on holding firearms responsible, but never cry for computers or phones to be held responsible? It is the sinner and her/his choice of action that must be held accountable, not the object in her/his hand.

11.  We cannot rationally blame the style of any weapon, any more than we can blame the weapon itself for the actions of the person wielding it. So-called "bump stocks" are the hot topic with anti-gunners these days, but all a user need do is adjust one's hand hold to effect the same kind of result. Just because shooters do not need any special gizmo on their gun to get a "bump stock" effect, shall we mandate to cut off every citizens’ thumbs in fear of what they might do with those thumbs? That way we could easily tell who wasn't going to be a "bump stock" threat to us and we could all go back to our sinful pleasures and blindness, covering our own comfortable sins and excusing the sins of those we didn't want to offend. The lies and false hopes of the anti-gun crowd deny our need for a deeper moral and spiritual self-examination and definitely a HUGE amount of repentance before God and His Christ.

12.  Our State and Federal Constitutions guarantee the rights of law-abiding citizens to possess and carry arms, as we responsibly choose (as the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott Decision cited, even though that SCOTUS decision violated that man’s other human rights).

Thank you for your time and consideration.