Guns and the church's moral duty

By Vicki Gray, January 28, 2011

[Episcopal News Service] Once I was a Foreign Service officer, a political officer trained to look at a host society and try to understand what makes it tick.

After many years spent living abroad, I've become accustomed to looking at my own country in much the same way: as an outside observer, seeking to make sense of an often-jumbled mosaic. And one thing I've always stumbled over -- that makes no sense to me -- is America's obsession with guns and our inability reasonably to regulate their possession.

How can one make sense of such inaction in a country where there are 90 guns for every 100 people -- man, woman, or child -- our nearest competitors being Yemen, a country afflicted by tribal strife and occupied in part by al Qaeda (61 guns per 100), and Switzerland, where every adult male is required by law to own a rifle as part of a well-regulated national militia (46 per 100)? Why do we tolerate more gun deaths every week on our city streets than on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq combined? How do we explain an annual rate of gun deaths 20 times higher than in any other industrialized democracy?

To read the balance of this article go to: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_126774_ENG_HTM.htm

Guns and responsibility

Since the 60s I have wondered about the insane lack of gun control in this country. The killing goes on, the NRA keeps buying legislators and the killing goes on. Public figures are shot the question is asked about lax gun laws and the killing goes on. Ordinary citizens continue to be slaughtered including children many people wonder about lax gun laws, and the killing goes on. Even the Supreme Court, men and women whose very profession should make them familiar with the English language and US history, are unable to read the Constitution in context of both language and history; they arrive at decisions that increase the possibility that laws will become even more lax, and the killing goes on.

Eugene Robinson makes valid points about this issue in his editorial that follows. Consider clicking on the link about "lax gun laws" embedded in his writing. Perhaps you would like to also go to the Brady web site to hear some ideas that counter the propaganda of the NRA. The web address is: http://www.bradycampaign.org/

Guns and responsibility

By Eugene Robinson

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

We may not be sure that the bloodbath in Tucson had anything to do with politics, but we know it had everything to do with our nation's insane refusal to impose reasonable controls on guns.

Specifically, the rampage had everything to do with a 9mm semiautomatic Glock pistol - a sleek, efficient killing machine that our lax gun laws allowed an unstable young man to purchase, carry anywhere and ultimately use to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head. The weapon also was used to shoot 19 bystanders, killing six of them, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl.

Read the balance of Eugene Robinson's opinion piece by going to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011004763.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

If you clicked on the "lax gun laws" link in the article you may have been as incredulous as I was to read the line that quoted the NRA as saying, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this senseless tragedy," it said. "We join the rest of the country in praying for the quick recovery of those injured."

“Guns aren’t fun”

This appeared in an E-mail from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. (The title of this post came from a quote by an enlisted Specialist who was drafted into the Army in the '60s and worked as a Social Work Specialist. He was a large sized individual and had worked as a Santa Clause during Christmas in a department store. The story he related was that when ever a child would ask for a toy gun for Christmas he would soon have him and other children chanting, "Guns aren't fun." This is an example of a creative way of being a peace maker.)

About the GUNS

This week there has been very little mention of GUNS: the role of guns in the numerous mass killings in the past decade. Newspapers around the country reflect an assumption that nothing will be done to curb gun violence...gun control advocates are mocked. It is true in the past decade the NRA has succeeded in derailing legislation to reduce gun violence. However, as Rachel Maddow pointed out this week, in 1986 and 1988, while Ronald Reagan, was president three very important bills were passed reducing the threat of gun violence (no plastic guns, no cop killer bullets and no machine guns for personal use).

Action we can take now:
Representative Carolyn McCarthy
has promised to introduce a bill that targets the high-capacity ammunition clip used in the Jan. 8 shooting. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said that he is preparing a similar bill for the Senate. In a written statement, Lautenberg said that the high-ammunition clips should "not be on the market" because the only reason people purchase them is "to kill a lot of people very quickly."

(politico.com). Please Contact your Congressional Representatives and let them know what you think.