Addressing Gun Control!
I am going to take an opportunity to address an issue that troubles me today. I pray that you will read this with an open mind before you fly off the handle and start throwing bricks at me. My intent is not to ridicule but to inform and enlighten.
The issue I want to address is very simple. It is gun control! In view of the latest tragedy at the school in Parkland, FL, I must say that gun control would have had no affect on this tragedy. Now, hear me out first. This young man, of 19 years of age, did buy this gun legally. The gun did not walk into the school and start firing at anybody and everybody! That gun was carried into the school by a disturbed young man. I say disturbed, because that is the issue more than the gun. The gun was not sick, nor was it disturbed, nor was it a criminal, nor did it have a criminal record. None of these factors could have been controlled by gun control. If this were the case, then we need to have automobile control, knife control, airplane control, etc. All these things kill people, but we don’t see people jumping all over these items for control. Do you get my point?
You cannot control where a bullet lands! A bullet lands wherever the gun is pointed. Again, the gun does not point itself! Someone has to actually point a gun at a target and that same individual has to pull the trigger to eject a bullet from a gun. A gun does not have a mind and therefore cannot pre-meditate an act of violence. A car cannot aim and accelerate itself into a crowd to cause mass murder! An automobile does not have the mind to do that! Neither can poison jump out of a bottle or sack and into the mouth of an individual on its own.
Again my point is this, in order for murder to happen, someone has to have it in their mind to get a gun and kill someone. A person has to have it in his mind to get in an automobile and drive it into a crowd to kill someone. A person has to have it in his mind to take poison and put in a drink or food to kill a person. The key point in all this is “MIND!” So does that mean “mind control” is the answer? We already have mind control. Who told this young man to go kill those people at the school? His mind was controlled by someone! There are numerous mind control games, programs and drugs out there already controlling minds. In my opinion, what we do need is heart control!
A man’s heart dictates to his mind how he feels and what he feels. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he. . .(NASV)” That being said, if a person has it in his heart to kill, he will do it! So if he/she has evil intentions in his/her heart, he/she is going to act accordingly. Man’s heart was never intended for evil. If a man commits evil, it is because his heart is broken. Therefore man or woman needs to have their heart examined and healed. And the good news is God is in the heart mending business. God tells us in Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.” Plain and simple, we need God to be in control of our troubled minds.
So how does one have God control their heart? I’m glad you asked! Jesus said in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.” And then He said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” You see, God loves you and wants you to have eternal life and so He offered you the gift of eternal life through His one and only son, Jesus, if you would just believe in Him and accept Him as your Savior. Would you accept Him?
Bob Lankford 