Guns for no one or guns for everyone
WHEN the Firearms Control Amendment Bill was mooted, all hell broke loose with a flurry of public utterances by proponents of gun ownership.
The letter writer of “Being gun-free is no guarantee of safety” (Cape Argus, July 19) is one of the lead singers in this choir.
Just like the death penalty this is one of the most vexatious matters that man has to deal with from the earliest times and, rightly so, it always leads to fierce debates.
This brother’s tirade started in all earnest soon after the St James Massacre on July 25, 1993 with the loss of 11 lives. He was the self-proclaimed “hero” armed in church with his little gun, who answered fire with fire at the attackers armed with heavy calibre firepower, even hand grenades.
This unfortunate incident in our recent history could have deteriorated into something much more tragic if those folks had turned around. Many more people would have perished.
Our mission as anti-death penalty activists is to sniff out anything that smells of promoting and defending these scourges, which are all violent by nature. We should never throw caution to the wind.
His other recent letter appeared in all local community papers being distributed all over the metropole.
Christ was very clear about the carrying of arms, but in order to confuse matters, they falsely claim that because Peter, one of his disciples, carried a sword, the weapon at the time, when he chopped off the ear of one of our Master’s attackers, we should also arm ourselves with whatever weapon is available in modern times.
How many children lost their lives when they discovered their parents’ guns while they were at work and forgot to lock them away after a night under their cushion?
How often are people murdered with their own weapons, others taking their own lives with guns, the weapon of choice?
Since this brother is a missionary, one wonders what his gospel will teach those poor folks about guns and the death penalty, many times used to exterminate rival tribes and people of other faiths, utterly contradicting Christ's teaching of love for one’s neighbour, and casting the first stone.
Must all our citizens who do not own guns yet, even women and the elderly, maybe kids too, now go and buy guns and holsters, expensive and hard-to-get licences, go to shooting ranges for training, buy vaults to lock them in safely, have them serviced regularly etc, only to be used one day, as vigilantes? Maybe never ever?
Must the poor also buy guns instead of food, or will the government have to arm them? How many may each citizen own, and of what firepower? We see now how some of us want to vaccinate, others don’t; when it’s election time, some want to vote, others don’t.
Our country will be a much safer, better place without guns in the hands of civilians, most of all gangsters, taxi people, armed robbers, burglars and, heaven forbid, terrorists.
Guns have caused too much misery and suffering in our bloody history.