This morning's headlines blared the news: the Supreme Court has ruled that there is a constitutional right to gun ownership. I'm not surprised - disheartened, dismayed, disappointed - but not surprised. The photo accompanying the headline was of jubilant supporters of gun rights who carried signs saying, "Guns Save Lives." "The Great Object: Every Man Be Armed." "If guns kill people...do pens misspell words?" One man held aloft a sign that had a scorecard: there was a big red check in the box next to "Gunowners" while the box next to "Victims" was empty.
And that's the real problem with gundamentalism (and I do see this ruling as an offshoot of gundamentalism) It believes that nothing else is as important as the right to own a gun. Or many guns. Or many kinds of guns. The fact that 30,000 people a year, 80 a day, are killed by guns is not nearly as important as the right to own a gun. The day before the Court announced its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot and killed himself after killing four co-workers. Thank goodness he had the right to own a gun.
What are the responsibilities that go along with this newly bestowed right? The Court's ruling does make room for sensible gun control. But we must ask deeper and more difficult questions. We need to ask ourselves: Where do we place our trust - In God or in guns? Who do we serve - God or the 2nd Ammendment? Where do we find a sense of security, self-worth, and purpose - from God or from guns? How do we bring about God's Kingdom - with an open heart or with a gun in hand?
The longing of the human soul is for healing, not violence. The yearning of the soul is for peace, not fear. The truth of the soul brings us closer to the God in whose image we are made. Gun ownership may now be called a constitutional right, but it has nothing to do with the desire of the soul.
