What Are They Thinking?

August 18, 2009 in Current Affairs with 8 Comments

So last night the Spring Hill Board of Alderman evidently voted to not opt out of the Tennessee law that allows guns to be carried in to parks. The linked article from the Tennessean says that leaders in Franklin, Brentwood and Thompson Station voted to opt out of the law thus banning fire arms from their recreational areas.

I absolutely don’t get this. Why in the world would you want to allow fire arms into the parks in Spring Hill? The parks in this city are always loaded with children and families. There is to my knowledge no significant crime problem and even if there were a significant crime issue there would be a number of ways to secure these areas before allowing anyone to bring in a fire arm.

This measure is just a way of creating space for a tragedy to happen. Am I missing something here? Is there any constructive reason to allow guns into these public spaces?

If you would like to contact your alderman or the mayor, here is their contact info.

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  • http://www.diningwithsinners.org Michael Carpenter

    Wilson County did the same. So now there will be gun toting people wandering around the county fair. Not sure I want to take my 4 year old now . . . sigh ;-(

  • http://brodyharper.com Brody

    Doesn’t this allow guns in restaurants too? Lovely.

  • http://www.williamguice.com William Guice

    I think the state law does. I’m not sure about Spring Hill. The news article didn’t mention restaurants. Maybe I should really start watching westerns again.

  • http://jonathannation.com Nation

    • http://www.williamguice.com William Guice

      Nation. That’s kinda funny but I’m not sure I get your point. The reality is that in an uncontrolled environment I don’t want people around my kids with guns. You may not understand this yet but one day you might. There is absolutely nothing constructive that can come from this and save your time before I get a second amendment retort; I am a follower of Christ first and an American somewhere after that. I am much more concerned with creating spaces and environments of peace than exerting some allusion of control or covering some fear that I have.

      • http://jonathannation.com Nation

        “I don’t want people around my kids with guns”

        is that really what you want?

        Might it really be you don’t want *bad* people with guns around your kids?

        Maybe it is you don’t want your kids to be harmed … any you are viewing guns as the cause, as opposed to a tool?

        “environments of peace” – preventing or discouraging good people (the people whom you probably don’t have any issue with having guns around you or your children – and in almost all cases you would never even know that they had a gun) from having guns is counter productive to this goal.

        • http://www.williamguice.com William Guice

          1) I’m fine with people not having guns. I don’t own one nor do I buy them for my son.
          2) True. I don’t want bad people around my kids with or without guns. Bad people, by which I assume that you mean…people whose hearts are given over to evil…are going to make bad choices and participate in evil activity. It doesn’t matter who has the gun. Good people having guns or tanks for that matter are not going to stop them. They have evil in their heart and they will find a way to perpetuate it. So what we may be saying is if they know I can match their force, then they will go somewhere else and do their evil which leads to them harming one of our neighbors which isn’t quite Biblical either. The only option is for a radical commitment to love over what may be a long period of time to change the hearts of those who would do evil. This is what Jesus did. He could have operated from a position of power but he did not. He lived among the oppressed and led from a platform of weakness…when he didn’t have to.
          3) I don’t want them harmed. That’s true, but I also understand that I cannot control every outcome of a world that is filled with sin.
          4) We live in a pretty smart world. We are pretty good at inventing things. I think we may be at a place where we can invent something that can protect…that is non-lethal. The gun is a lethal weapon. I have no problem with people defending themselves after all peaceful means are sought but for some reason we default to guns. There has to be a better way. We are gun crazy. I think much of this is driven by fear and once again this allusion that we have that if we have enough power, money or weapons we can be in control and everything will be okay.

          This is an area that really really bugs me so apologize if I seem more short than normal. We are so completely & absolutely uncreative in this area. We somehow follow the Devil’s, and I do believe it’s his lie, that we can curb evil activity by having the same tools as those who do evil. If we can match them force for force, blow for blow, we’ll be okay. We continually fall for the myth of redemptive violence. We are no different that Sampson lighting fires with foxes.

          I’m not sure that Dr. King wasn’t right when he said, “By Our Readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim, we have created an atmosphere in which violence
          and hatred have become popular pastimes.”

          p.s. > I’m going to read your health care stuff later tonight. I had several people email or message me so I’m trying to read through all that was sent to me before I post.

          peace ~

          • http://www.williamguice.com William Guice

            You know…I probably strayed a bit there or alot :) So you can read the short one or the long one.

            I just can’t see a constructive purpose for it but I can see a lot of reasons why it shouldn’t happen.

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What Are They Thinking?