Amazing Grace in a Culture of Gun Glory
Written by Guns to Gardens volunteer Sherry Kenney
Like many Americans, I have tried to process my grief, struggling to comprehend how we as a nation could once again have gone through such a heartbreaking event as the one that occurred on May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
What has made it even more difficult is that we are not going through it together. We are divided in our outlook as to what the causes, and what the solutions, might be. Given the sad facts that have continued to emerge, we are also divided – and distracted by – who may be to blame for the horrific death toll.
The lens through which I view this and similar past events is one of a white female, a practicing Christian, a parent, and a grandparent. While my husband and I own two guns, they are not part of our identity. One, a shotgun, was purchased so that he could go pheasant hunting with his friends; the other, a pistol, was purchased for personal home protection years ago. My husband underwent a background check to obtain each, and took safety lessons to be sure he used them properly. They are stored in a locked safe, unloaded. Since he no longer hunts, and we rely on other safety measures to protect our home – an alarm system, outdoor lighting, good neighbors who know us and look out for us, and a responsive police department – we will most likely choose to give both up to a program such as Guns to Gardens.
Why has this tragedy that forever changes individuals, families, and entire communities continued to repeat itself? I see multiple reasons, all misguided, that work in a circular manner to reinforce each other.
First, there is fear. It has been said that the opposite of love is not hatred, but fear. Even though the admonition to “Fear not” appears in the Bible enough times for us to be reminded each day of the year, there is abundant fear in the United States. There is fear of the other – whether he or she or they be a person of color, an immigrant, a member of the LGBTQ community, or a person whose faith tradition is different from ours. There is fear of being victimized by crime, and fear of disenfranchisement. There is fear of government overreach, fueled in part by social media sites and conspiracy theorists.
Second, there is greed. Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, writes that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” The gun industry preys on the widespread fear that exists in this country, and offers up guns, and more guns, and guns designed to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, as the solution to multiple perceived problems. Citizens of the United States bought over twenty-million guns in 2021, for a total (including the cost of ammunition) of twenty-eight billion dollars. There are more guns than there are people in the US.
Third, there is desire for power. Our elected Congresspersons and Senators, the very people who have the power to effect change, choose not to, because the money and endorsement they receive from the gun lobby perpetuates their re-election. They deny that the excessive number and type of guns in circulation in our country are the problem, and they refuse to either seek compromise on partial solutions demonstrated to be effective, or to fund research into the root causes of our national gun violence epidemic.
Gun lovers and their lobby maintain the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Clearly that theory did not pan out on May 24th, as good guys with guns stood in a hallway near a classroom where a troubled eighteen-year-old with legally acquired weapons continued to murder innocent children and their teachers for over an hour. We humans make mistakes, and we misjudge situations.
That’s what happened to John Hurley in Arvada, Colorado, who in November of 2021 observed a gunman walking toward the town square after having shot and killed a policeman. Hurley confronted the gunman, and shot and killed him with a handgun he was licensed to own and carry. He confiscated the AR-15 type weapon the gunman intended to use to “kill as many Arvada police officers as I can,” according to a note he had written. Another policeman saw Hurley as he walked toward the station to report the incident and turn the weapon in. He shot and killed the hero.
A similar case involved an off-duty policeman working security at the Riverchase Galleria Mall in Hoover, Alabama on Thanksgiving night of 2018. He shot and killed Emantic Bradford, Jr., a young Black man, as Bradford attempted to stop a gunman in the act of committing a crime. Being a good guy with a gun can be dangerous business, especially if you are Black. I humbly suggest we would all be safer if we were required to leave our guns at home, except when we are hunting or shooting target practice or riding the range on our ranch, so that law enforcement could more easily identify who the “bad guys” really are. Those mistakenly assumed to be bad would certainly be safer – think Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery.
Gun lovers say, “Guns don’t kill – people kill.” The governments of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have decided otherwise, resulting in almost zero gun-related deaths in those countries today. When the UK decided to impose strict regulations on gun ownership and use after a mass school shooting in 1996, Prince Charles famously objected, “A gun is no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman.” A cricket bat might certainly impose serious injury – a concussion or a broken tooth. It might even put out an eye. But it is unlikely to kill.
The assault weapons that have been used in the most grievous mass killings in the United States were designed to be used in war. They are designed for killing. They cause internal organs to explode. There is no recovering from the damage they do. The remains of some of the children killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde were unrecognizable by their parents. Do we, the American public, need to be forced to view those remains to understand the devastation these weapons cause? The United States, which leads the world in private gun ownership, ranked second only to Brazil in total gun-related deaths in 2019.
Some politicians are prepared to address our public health crisis by fortifying our safe spaces – schools, churches, and hospitals – with armed guards. They suggest that teachers should carry weapons and should be prepared to use them. Why then not ministers, and doctors too? This strategy only perpetuates the myth that more guns make us safer. If more guns made us safer the United States would have the lowest gun-related death rate, not the highest.
Of course, other countries can take drastic measures to control gun ownership; they have no Second Amendment, which states that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
But the introduction to our Constitution states one of its purposes as being to “insure domestic Tranquility”. Domestic tranquility is the last thing we are insured today, because our priorities have become so skewed. We need a sea change. George W. Bush, forty-third president of the United States, said at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws, and corrects them.” That truth applies here as well.
The “Arms” our countrymen were given the protected right to bear were muskets, pistols, and swords. Our founding fathers, wise and brave men who risked their lives for our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, did not imagine the type of assault weapons manufactured today, and would no doubt be horrified at the aggressive way they are marketed. Tension has always existed here between our desire for individual autonomy and our desire for the common good. But when it comes to gun safety the balance has perilously shifted.
While I work for change, I pray. And though I pray fervently for those who mourn the loss of a beloved child, spouse, parent, sister or brother, or friend lost to gun violence, I also pray for the many gun-lovers in this country who cannot see the pain being inflicted by their refusal to voluntarily give up some of their freedom in consideration of others. I pray for those who cannot see how oxymoronic it is to hold up a sign like one I saw in Payson, Arizona recently that read “Pro-Life, Pro-God, Pro-Guns”.
John Newton was the son of a sea captain father and a Christian mother. He followed his father to sea, and then joined the slave trade, capturing and selling human beings for profit. In 1748 he was aboard a slave ship named the Greyhound when a storm gathered and threatened to kill him and his crew. All through the night he battled the elements to keep his ship from capsizing. As he fought for his life, he wondered, were he to die, if God would be able to forgive him for the harm he had caused others.
Finally, the storm abated, and the men were safe. But the experience was transformational for Newton. He left his life at sea behind and became the pastor of a small English church. There he wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace.
I am praying for this kind of transformation for those who contribute, many unwittingly, to the glorification of our gun culture – for gun manufacturers, for those who lobby our politicians against common-sense compromise desired by the people, for the politicians themselves, and for those who for whatever reasons are motivated to amass a cache of weaponry. May God open their hearts to understanding and grant them a peace no amount of ammunition can provide.