Christianity, Guns and the Constitution

What part of the Constitution do we NOT understand? Apparently, all of it. There has been holy hell to pay by gun folks over proposed universal background checks because the Second Amendment says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". Guns should not be regulated in any manner  according to these Second Amendment fundamentalists. The only problem is that their literal reading is a mistaken reading. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution says this about Congress' responsibilities:

15:  To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
16:  To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

According to the Constitution, Congress has the responsibility to call forth the Militia, the same Militia referred to in the Second Amendment which is the reason for the right to keep and bear Arms. The Militia in Article I, Section 8  is more akin to the National Guard: they are called up to suppress insurrections and repel invasions. This Militia is to be well- regulated (by Congress). It is to be well organized and CONGRESS is responsible for arming them. The words "well-regulated" are crucial. Congress has the DUTY to regulate the ARMS kept by the people. You cannot understand the Second Amendment without the context of Article I, Section 8.  To quote the Amendment without the context is misleading and specious.

These same people seem to want to do away with the FIRST Amendment as North Carolina tried to make Christianity the official religion in that state. It was defeated but a poll by Huffington Post shows that 31% of Americans want Christianity to be the State Religion. The First Amendment says, as we all know:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This Amendment has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to mean that there should be separation of Church and State and it should be an absolute separation. Congress cannot make Christianity a State Religion. Period. Yet, the same people who are absolutist about the (misunderstood) Second Amendment are not so excited by the First. It seems that they want to pick and choose what part of the Constitution they want to follow. Sorry, my friends, you can't have it both ways.

The worst part would be the SORT of Christianity they want to impose on the rest of us. They want us all to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior but also to accept the rules THEY choose, like making homosexuality illegal, abortion illegal, contraception illegal, etc. They want us to be the land of the Christian Taliban, imposing their version of Sharia Law. Once again, they totally misunderstand Jesus who was, in his day and age, a radical breaking from Pharisaic legalistic religion. Jesus was the opposite of Pharisees and the present day Right Wing is the modern equivalent of the Pharisees. Jesus interpreted the Law this way: You shall love the Lord Your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love, not Judgment. In the Gospels Jesus was a teacher of Mercy and Grace while the Pharisees were rule oriented. The modern day Pharisees would impose their rules on Christianity and make God in their own image: legalistic AND idol worshippers.

What we ALL need is Love. If you call yourself a Christian, that is what is required. In what sense is unregulated gun worship Christian? Jesus told Peter to put away the sword when he cut off the ear of a Centurion in Gethsemane. He healed the Roman soldier. Weapons were not the answer. Neither are they the answer now.

People With Guns Kill People

This morning's senseless and horrifying shooting in Aurora, Colorado was perpetrated by a young man armed with FOUR guns. He used them with obvious premeditation. He has no criminal record and nothing about him stood out to authorities. This man seemed ordinary, yet he ended the lives of at least 12 people and injured dozens more. The only thing that stands out, as of now, is that he was armed with 4 guns. Without those weapons, those innocent people would still be alive and whole. Without those particular guns, a movie would have remained a fun event instead of a mind-bending tragedy. The guns are what stands out.

The National Rifle Association has spent millions upon millions of dollars to protect their 2nd Amendment rights. The right to keep and bear arms is sacrosanct to them and their millions of members. My question for them is this: Does YOUR ( and my) right to keep and bear arms supersede the right of all of us to LIFE, to the having the right to live without the fear of being gunned down? The very first right given to us in the US Constitution is LIFE. You do not have the right to infringe on that most basic of rights, I don't care what the 2nd Amendment says. The fact is that people with GUNS kill people. It is time to take a look at how freely guns are are available and how they are regulated. After all, the Amendment the NRA worships has to do with a "well regulated militia." Guns, in and of themselves, are NOT the point of the Second Amendment. We would all do well to remember that.  The POINT of the Second Amendment is to protect LIFE not to infringe upon it. For the NRA, guns are a means and an end in and of themselves. That is just WRONG. The end is to protect life and liberty. Guns can sometimes, rarely, be a means to that end. ALWAYS, guns should be the last resort, as it was for the Founders who tried every other way to have their grievances with England redressed. Armed revolt was the last resort. The NRA needs to learn to see guns in this light. Otherwise, you have a mass of people who worship guns instead of the life and freedom they are meant to protect. When you begin to worship weapons, you end up with a violent  society uninterested in the preservation of life. You end up with horrendous massacres of innocent people who stood no chance of defending themselves. That goes against EVERYTHING  the Founders of this country intended. And the NRA knows it.

I believe the National Rifle Association has a responsibility to the victims and families of the Aurora shooting. They OWE it to these people to take a good hard look at their values and principles and reassess them to stand more in line with the respect for human life. The NRA needs to reassess their ethics. They need to do it now.

*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author