Gun Control and Self Control

Gun control marches: Feel good and accomplish nothing

As sure as death and taxes, gun control advocates began screaming for more gun control laws after the recent massacre in San Bernardino, California where jihadists Sayed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik gunned down 14 people at a state run facility for the developmentally disabled.

Gun control activists want us to believe that if we only had tougher gun laws, then the Muslim Bonnie and Clyde duo wouldn't have acquired the AR-15 assault rifles they used to commit murder at the facility. Even though California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, that didn't prevent Farook and his wife from obtaining the powerful weapons.

The city of Chicago also has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and yet that city has one of the highest gun homicide rates of any American city. The majority of Chicago's gun homicide victims are blacks who were shot by blacks. However, Barack Obama and his media sycophants want you to believe that more gun laws would end the carnage and allow everyone to live happily ever after.  

Needless to say, gun laws don't work. Why? Because criminals don't obey the law. Gun laws merely prevent law-abiding citizens from carrying guns. Not so with criminals.

That was the case at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino where guns are forbidden. Had they been allowed at the facility, perhaps one or more of the employees that were there attending the Christmas party on Dec. 2 when Farook and his wife barged in with the big heat, might have limited or even prevented the ensuing tragedy. Or, perhaps not.

For a good analogy, drug laws don't prevent people from acquiring and using illegal narcotics. If drug laws worked, the United States wouldn't be one of the largest consumers of illegal narcotics in the world. In fact, the Mexican drug cartels have made their millions off of drug-consuming Americans. So much for drug laws.

And so much for gun laws. If drugs can be moved so easily across America's porous southern border, then so can guns. For criminals, guns are just another commodity to earn a living. As long as there are street gangs that are allowed to flourish and sell narcotics from Mexico, guns will be made available to them by the cartels so the gangs can protect their business and keep the money flowing to the cartels.

America doesn't have a gun problem, she has a moral problem. The decline of the Judeo-Christian influence in America has given rise to a selfish, violent, narcissistic culture that often seeks to settle disputes with guns and knives. Self control is out and impulsiveness is in. Humbleness and meekness are out and arrogance, braggadocio and pride are in.

In his letters to the early churches, the apostle Paul urged the new Christians to practice self control in their spiritual lives. To the church in Galatia, Paul wrote this: "But the fruit of the (Holy) Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

To fellow apostle Titus he wrote this: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age..." (Titus 2:11-12) 

And the apostle Peter also preached about the necessity of self control: "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." (1 Peter 4:7) And nearly 3,000 years ago, King Solomon wrote this: "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." (Proverbs 25:28)

Peter also said this: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8) 

It's easy to blame guns for the carnage that's plaguing America and the world. Guns are impersonal. And it's harder to challenge people to devote their lives to Jesus Christ and to stop living in sin and debauchery that often leads to destructive behavior such as gun violence.

But that has to be done. America doesn't need more gun control. Rather, America needs more self control. And that comes by rejecting the world's evil desires and living for Jesus Christ.