Of guns and gods
Dear Editor,
Late 19th century US President Theodore Roosevelt once suggested that the nature of a gun is as good as the character of the man who holds it. He asserted the same of a man’s vote.
Here in Jamaica, in our struggles with gun crime, we have been mistakenly focusing on the gun separate from its holder, and not the relationship between the two. If we were to consider the latter, then we would realise that it is a spiritual matter.
In the 1980 comedy, The Gods Must Be Crazy, the ‘wise’ protagonist in a deeply remote part of Africa stumbled upon a most fantastic “novel” item in the form of a Coke glass bottle. After the initial joy it brought to his people from its usefulness and splendour, he was saddened by the discord which it brought amongst them, and was puzzled and disappointed about the gods’ decision to send them this ‘evil’ gift. He spent the rest of the story on a journey to “the end of the world” to return the evil bottle to the gods. Such is the enchanting beauty, utility, and evil of a gun. Only if we could take them, as the late Nelson Mandela charismatically advised, and “throw them into the sea”.
When we watch the typical action movie, the expectation is almost always that the movie character would prudently seize any opportunity to add a fallen man’s firearm or ammunition to his armoury, like some bonus points or feature in a video game, but real firearms and their destructive capabilities are games and movies only at the hand of the Devil, the master of folly. It was not until Canadian action movie actor, martial artist, and philanthropist Steven Seagal that we got some positive distraction from the ‘glory of the gun’ in film.
If truth be told, then anyone who has held a gun will admit to hearing it ‘talk’ to them. This may sound suspiciously psychotic, but, below the surface, it is spiritual. What does the gun say? It basically echoes what the Devil told Eve (of Adam and Eve); that “You will become like gods.” However, God has never held a gun to anyone’s head, but His mere voice made Adam and Eve hide themselves from His truth, and His command left them in exile.
In our fight against crime, our policy-makers, legislators, and law enforcement themselves must renounce any suggestion that they are ‘gods’ because of the gun. And all well-meaning Jamaicans must align themselves with the truth and its Creator, so that the character of a man will not only be reflected in his use of his firearm, but also shall be judged by it.