[1] In the United States, public discussion about gun violence and gun control is over-politicized and under-ethicized.\u00a0\u00a0 Since our postmodern and polarized society does not share a common religious and moral vocabulary, it has instead reduced dilemmas like gun violence and gun control to the language of secular \u201crights\u201d and the proper size of regulatory government.\u00a0 There is, nonetheless, a widespread hunger in our society to hear people converse about gun violence and gun control with Christian terms that provide traction on our enduring dilemmas of sin, evil, and redemption.<\/p>\n
[2] Donald Gaffney, a Disciples of Christ minister, steps into this breach with a book that can be used by\u00a0anyone, but\u00a0is principally designed for reflection and discussion by individual Christians and congregational groups.\u00a0 Moreover, he brings the perspective of a gun owner. (Though not a hunter, Gaffney is not opposed to it, p. 5).\u00a0\u00a0 As a matter of full disclosure, this reviewer is an avid hunter of big game and birds as well as an occasional\u00a0plinker, and he finds Gaffney\u2019s perspective especially relevant to our current gun control stalemate.\u00a0\u00a0 The ranks of shooters and hunters are not numerous among clergy and theologians, and perhaps less among those of the progressive variety, yet it is probable that clergy and theologians who hunt may be most aware of the ethical ambiguities of creaturely life ended violently.\u00a0 The cross of Christ allows and even insists that there can be ethical affirmation of goodness and love amid the inevitable losses of life this side of resurrection, or we simply fail to apprehend the depth of goodness, evil, and grace.<\/p>\n
[3] By way of his own biography, Gaffney tells how he was shaped by growing up on a small farm near Newtown, Connecticut in the late \u201940s and \u201850s where use of guns was as natural as using tools to hoe corn or cut wood.\u00a0 He and his brothers had a variety of toy guns, and much of their play mimicked TV Westerns.\u00a0 As is telling for this book, he attended Sandy Hook Elementary School, the scene of a horrific mass killing in 2012.\u00a0 After becoming a geologist (and an ordained Disciples of Christ minister ten years later), he and his wife moved to western Pennsylvania, an area steeped in hunting culture, where for young persons, \u201cshooting their first deer is a true rite of passage\u201d (p. 5).<\/p>\n
[4] Moved by the suicide of Ernest Hemingway in 1961, the Kennedy and King assassinations, and a close friend\u2019s murder of his wife followed by his own suicide, Gaffney says of gun violence: \u201cFor some people, witnessing gun violence . . . makes them want to limit the availability of guns.\u00a0 For others, seeing such violence in the world makes them see guns as a necessary means of protection\u201d (p. 8).\u00a0 This set the stage for discussing the stories of Suzanna Gratia and Gabrielle\u00a0Giffords, who responded in different ways to personal and tragic gun violence.\u00a0 Gratia lobbied successfully for concealed-carry laws in Texas, and\u00a0Giffords\u00a0lobbied in Arizona and nationally for common sense gun control; e.g., no possession for the mentally ill and those with a criminal record (Gifford\u2019s assailant had a history of mental illness and anti-government behavior).\u00a0 As disclosed later in his book, Gaffney holds a Pennsylvania license for open-carry and concealed-carry firearms (p. 58), yet he also supports the Gifford PAC (p. 49, p. 112)\u2014facts which credibly reinforce Gaffney\u2019s ability to avoid ideological and ethical rigidity.\u00a0 He makes no mention of supporting the National Rifle Association (NRA), though he describes its purpose and some of its activities (pp. 46-49).<\/p>\n
[5] The second chapter on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Culture of Guns,\u201d could have been a\u00a0book in itself, as, indeed, others have penned.\u00a0 Noting among other statistics that the United States has roughly 270 million guns (90 for every 100 residents), and that guns are involved in 64% of all homicides, he states: \u201cGuns are our foundation and identity, a symbol of our freedom, in ways they are not for most other nations\u201d (p. 19).\u00a0 Gaffney is not saying that guns have more of a role in America than the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the United States Constitution, or the principles of the Christian faith, but he does candidly acknowledge the literal and storied role of guns in the formation, expansion, and identity of this nation.<\/p>\n
[6] Here it is significant that later in the book where Gaffney addresses specific actions, he says: \u201cI don\u2019t want to abolish a legitimate freedom within the Second Amendment but to place it within the context of the other amendments\u201d (p. 112). Clearly he represents a moderating attitude toward gun control that veers away from talk of abolishing the Second Amendment, while frankly recognizing that this nation long ago developed and cultivated a culture dependent upon and open to the use of guns for self-defense, hunting, sport shooting, law enforcement, and military preparedness.\u00a0 At the same time, Gaffney points-out that \u201cgood guys with guns\u201d feeding the notion of \u201credemptive violence\u201d (e.g., movies like\u00a0Sergeant York, Shane, Superman<\/em>) have the problem of glorifying violence and confusing fact with fiction.\u00a0Moreover, his section on \u201cGuns and Race\u201d is sympathetic to how Blacks have long been victims of a double standard concerning gun ownership and gun violence stereotyping.<\/p>\n [7] \u201cGuns and Gun Violence in America,\u201d the third chapter, discusses mass shootings, gun violence statistics, gun rights groups, gun control groups, and national and state gun laws.\u00a0 He briefly discusses the 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0and 14th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendments and recent court decisions upholding the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.\u00a0 To his credit, Gaffney does not want to sensationalize statistics or laws, but is rather concerned about human lives and social harmony behind the numbers.\u00a0 It is the violence and carnage that gun violence creates that he wants to limit by responsible gun control.\u00a0 To this end, he instructively compares laws requiring car safety and driver licensing to gun safety and shooter licensing as a model that could balance private gun rights with the public responsibilities that entails.<\/p>\n [8] I found less instructive his next section on \u201cMental Health and Gun Violence.\u201d While conceding that \u201cin most mass shootings there is a mental health component\u201d(p. 65), he does not suggest legal and enforceable initiatives that would help to minimize use of guns by those with mental health issues.\u00a0 I say \u201cminimize,\u201d since the disordering of sin and evil in individuals will never yield entirely to social contracts, legal formulas, and preventive screenings.\u00a0 At the same time, hindsight shows that more mental health interventions could reduce gun mortalities.<\/p>\n [9] In his fourth chapter on \u201cViolence and the Bible,\u201d Gaffney addresses images of God dispensing not only grace and salvation but also violence and judgment. He discusses the much-neglected notion of \u201cwrath,\u201d suggesting that it describes the passionate love of God judging human sin and unfaithfulness. In discussing the violence of the cross, Gaffney uses a substitutionary sacrifice lens and concludes that \u201cwhile Paul can explain his understanding of how God works to resolve my dilemma, I still feel stuck in the middle of it.\u201d (p.80) To this reviewer, this is, indeed, an existential \u201cdilemma\u201d posed by the cross, in which case it is helpful to accent Paul\u2019s notion of wrath as the judgment sinful people bring on themselves as the abuse of their God-given freedom. Connecting this to the unavoidability of sin we can recognize that Christian freedom is neither\u00a0freedom from<\/em>\u00a0the possibility of gun violence\u00a0nor freedom for<\/em>\u00a0the perfectibility of gun and human safety.\u00a0 This insight also qualifies those who insist on the absoluteness of individual gun rights over the rights of the larger community which are inordinately imperiled by acts of gross criminality.<\/p>\n [10] In Chapter 5, \u201cTalking About Guns as Christians,\u201d Gaffney challenges: \u201cAs Christians in America, we need to ask ourselves this question: am I a Christian first, or an American first?\u00a0 I claim to be a Christian first and an American second, and I don\u2019t think that makes me unpatriotic\u201d (p. 90).\u00a0 For him, this takes ethical shape in following the cross of Christ (p. 95), refusing to idolize guns, and refusing to fear reasonable gun control measures.\u00a0 His chief concern is reducing gun violence (p. 97, p. 104), and to this end he has proposed this book as a tool for participants to share their first-hand stories, and then \u201csee and hear Christ in the midst of these stories.\u201d (98)\u00a0This is the worthy objective that truly distinguishes this book!\u00a0 The questions after each chapter are personal and penetrating, he suggests rules for cultivating respect and trust in small groups, and at numerous places he suggests using prayer to guide deliberations.<\/p>\n [11] Gaffney recognizes that \u201cThe intensity of political involvement is a matter for individual discernment\u201d (p. 112).\u00a0\u00a0 While it is clear that he favors reasonable and common-sense gun control, the book would profit from more information on the arguments and strategies of gun rights groups.\u00a0 More could also be said to distinguish mortality statistics between guns used for criminality and guns used for hunting, target competition, and collecting.\u00a0 Given the great numbers of guns used for the latter purposes, it is always surprising to me that there are not more accidents and human casualties than there are, which is a tribute to adequate gun training. Finally, discussion of gun control would also benefit from attention to the myriad societal conditions and social factors intersecting with gun violence.<\/p>\n [12] Gaffney suggests a number of legislative priorities (pp. 112-114) such as electronic record-keeping of gun sales and transfers, repeal of open-carry laws, and minimum weapons training and examination for concealed-carry permits, which would almost certainly be resisted by gun rights groups.\u00a0 Yet Donald Gaffney\u2019s stated aim is promoting conversation among people of varying backgrounds and viewpoints, and though this may seem a modest objective, its fruitfulness can be more than we realize.\u00a0 As a gun-owning Christian, Gaffney makes a valuable contribution to those seeking more \u201ccommon ground\u201d on issues of gun violence and gun control in America.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [1] In the United States, public discussion about gun violence and gun control is over-politicized and under-ethicized.\u00a0\u00a0 Since our postmodern and polarized society does not share a common religious and moral vocabulary, it has instead reduced dilemmas like gun violence and gun control to the language of secular \u201crights\u201d and the proper size of regulatory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-violence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n