This needs to be thrown into the blog stream of consciousness at some point, so I’ll insert it here. I’m not as against guns as I thought.

It’s not really that I changed my mind. It’s that when I thought of “guns,” I had a specific thing in mind. And not the whole spectrum of gunnery that is out there.

(It’s a bit like when a man asks his wife if she wants a dog. He’s thinking Doberman, she’s thinking poodle.)

Keith Brenton wrote an article for New Wineskins that was titled “Fun, Food and Fear.” That was his three categories of gun ownership: those who use guns for recreation, those who use guns for hunting, those who use guns for protection. There are probably other ways to break it down, but those aren’t bad.

I understand owning guns for recreation. Humans like to show off our dexterity, our skills. One way we do that is by competing in games of accuracy: shooting baskets, playing pool, tossing horseshoes, shooting targets.

Hunting can be closely related to that. For some, it’s an effort to obtain necessary food. For most it’s sport, related to the above. Sometimes it bleeds over into the area of protection, like when a farmer shoots the coyote that’s threatening his animals.

I accept the choice about protection. I haven’t made the same choice, nor would I encourage that choice, but I accept it. The article I wrote about “If You Choose To Own A Gun” was directed at people in that category.

I want to discuss some things about Christians and violence, and I know that many will think I’m using those articles to speak out on gun control. So I thought I should lay out my basic views on guns before going too far with the other.