Unsafe

From time to time for sheer amusements sake and for just 'keeping tabs on the culture', I watch videos on youtube where people argue about gun control. The majority I see are Piers Morgan vs. _____, and most of them follow the same basic blueprint.

 

Anti-gunner says world would be safer if nobody only law enforcement had guns, or make guns ridiculously hard to get a hold of. Gun advocate throws in a few statistics about how things are safer with guns, and proceeds to get adamant about their guns and their constitutional rights, ending in a stereo-typical 'you can have my guns one round at a time' statement. 

Piers rightly states that most gun advocates that get on that type of show all do that, with little variation. He appears to be dead right. 

Of course, the gun advocates are usually right in their analysis, when it comes to statistics, motivations, etc., but  over and over again, it seems to me that they miss the real mark. There is a real point, way deep down past the layers of anti-gunners arguments, rules, and TV talk shows. 

The real nugget? The real deal behind guns, drugs, teen drivers, and cattle ranchers?

They (Fill in that Pronoun with your party of choice) think they can make the world safe. They think that with all their rules, regulations, and lack of freedom, keeping the law-abiding citizen tacked to his chair in an attempt to pin the criminal, that somehow, someway, the world will be safe.     

Safe.

Oh the word, they roll it around in their mouth in sheer joy at it's sound. They harp on it daily, as a matter of fact. Gun control is worth it - stiffer driving laws are worth it - higher taxes for 'better' schools are worth it - if they can only keep one person safe. 

I have been thinking on this, and I want to see if I can put this question, this issue, to rest in one fell swoop, because the answer is not what it may at first appear.  

Fear is a deadly thing, and to be honest, it drives most people. Fear of looking bad in front of their friends. Fear of losing money in the stock market. Fear of being hurt. Fear of pain. Fear of insignificance. Fear of insecurity. Fear of fear itself. 

In this case, fear of un-safety. ( I just found out that isn't a word..... oh well.)

In the New Captain America (review coming sometime.... I hope..) there is a stunning line.

Nick Fury has just finished telling Cap how they are about to launch their next step in anti-terrorism - basically to kill anyone who might even be the tiniest possibility of a terrorist with massive souped-up drones. 

Cap: I thought the punishment came after the crime?

Nick: Here at Shield we take the world as it is, not as we like it to be.

Cap: By holding a gun to everybody's head and calling it freedom.   

Freedom is the other side of the coin. 

Freedom is never safe. Total safety is never free. Think about it. If you have the freedom to cut yourself if you pick up that knife sitting next to you, there is a slight risk in that freedom. You just might be dumb and cut yourself. If, however, that knife is removed, technically you no longer have the freedom to hurt yourself with that knife, and again, technically the risk is gone. You are safe now, right? 

The world is scared stiff of getting hurt and getting rubbed wrong, so of course the way to make everybody safe is to make sure that no-one is free. 

The bad guys in Cap 2 ( no spoilers out there for those who haven't yet seen it ) say in the movie that the world can't be trusted with its own freedom - they have to take it away to make it safe. 

Sure, freedom is scary. It means someone might use their freedom to do you harm. They might use their freedom to do something you don't like. The list goes on of things that they could do with their freedom that are potentially harmful, and the quick and obvious solution is to just take away all freedom - far, far safer that way. 

The militia, or even worse, the rabble minded public at large, might decide to storm the capital if capitol hill does something they decide is dumb, therefore lets just make things much safer and remove all public guns. Oh yes, that's better. Safe....

All you gun-toters and conservatives out there, pause just a second though. Don't get yourself too saddled up on your high-horse there. You ain't off the hook either.  

Christ commands us to love. Love unconditionally as a matter of fact, and unconditional love is unsafe. 

It's hard, admit it. 

Ladies, if you do the right thing and don't snap back when your husband is rude to you and run roughshod and (gasp!) unloving over your life, and love him back and serve him, it means he still has the potential to keep on doing it. And that hurts. Are you going to keep loving him? Serving him? 

Guys, when she is disrespecting you, not honoring you, loving her when she is being nasty and a bit of a jerk is not second nature. Being loving keeps you open to more hurt, more pain. 

It's so much easier to take away their freedom to hurt you, by merely walling yourself up, and being unloving back.    

So much safer. 

And that is ultimately why tyranny is wrong - it is the ultimate version of distrust and lack of love. One man in a big chair thinks that to keep himself and his rule safe and happy, he must keep the entire nation under his heavy and blood stained thumb, because freedom is far, far to dangerous. Any and all freedom is a threat to him, so it must all go. Every last bit of freedom.

But Christ knew this, and still left those around him free. Free to hurt him, free to kill him - and kept loving them even when they did. 

And he had total freedom to wall them all off, blast them all to smithereens, and bring the world back down to serene safety. 

Oh that word is starting to bug me...... maybe that is why I like guns without safety's.... That thought literally just came through my mind. Odd.    

Anyway, he didn't do any of that. He used his freedom to love them back, and ultimately, that freedom and love, is what makes us free today, and what makes us love him today. 

Odd isn't it? Without freedom, we cant love. If God never gave us freedom to hate him, we would never actually have the choice to love him. To make the conscious choice one way, there has to be the possibility, and the freedom, of turning the opposite way. 

And that is one of the reasons why I think we should have no other laws besides the biblical laws, because then, and only then, are we being totally loving to our neighbor. I don't believe we should have stupid laws that try to keep ourselves safe from other peoples stupidity. 

Like age limits on driving and owning guns. Really?  Just have the laws in place to punish them if they actually do do something biblically worthy of punishment from the state. Like killing somebody. 

But hey, whatcha know, the Bible has laws on how to deal with that. 

Lets not have anymore of these laws that make the cops come out and play sandbox mediator when we have a fender bender, so nobody can ever be taken advantage of by a jerk who insists it was your fault he hit your bumper, and takes off down the road, leaving you having to now repair your car. 

It's just a big-fat case of not really loving your neighbor. 

But lets be a little more down home shall we?

Let's no longer wall everybody off who is hurting us, be unloving, because that is the easiest way to keep us and our emotions safe. 

Lets instead be open - be loving - be ready to be hurt, be ready to be taken advantage of, be ready for humiliation, be content with things being 'unsafe',  because then, and only then, are we really, truly, loving.