4 Responses to “Churches hold gun buyback program”

1. José Says:
   April 14th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

   In Texas the state lege is considering a bill that would require colleges and universities to allow licensed concealed carry weapons. Even private schools. Even church affiliated private schools. The legislators have to vote for it to prevent being targeted by the NRA and other gun rights groups.

   In my way of thinking this should be a cut and dried case of private property rights. A school, church, or business ought to be able to ban weapons from their private property. If someone wants to pack heat then they can take their business where they are welcome. Whatever happened to freedom?

2. Caleb Powers Says:
   April 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

   I suspect, Jose, that many of the same people who believe that Revelation is the only book in the New Testament also believe that the Second Amendment is the only one in the Constitution that counts. Two things that many people are absolutely illogical about are guns and religion, to the point that they can barely discuss either.

   Don’t get me wrong. I grew up in the country, and love guns. I grew up hunting and fishing and shooting guns, and I’d hate to see that part of our rural culture die. At the same time, I find it hard to buy the NRA’s “slippery slope” argument that if we don’t allow people to take machine guns to church that the government will confiscate all our .22 rifles and 12 gauge shotguns. No logic whatsoever, particularly when you remember that these folks have allowed the Republican court system to take away the rights protected by all the other amendments, apparently on the theory that if things get bad enough, we’ll use our guns against the government. Good luck there; they have bigger guns than we ever will.

3. David Duke Says:
   April 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

   We have a celebration in Utah county every year in July called the Freedom Festival. There is a keynote speaker invited each year. A few years back it was James E. Faust of the presidency of the LDS church. I’m sure most of those attending expected the typical “God and guns” rhetoric that would go over well here. I think more than a few were surprised when President Faust mentioned that when the 2nd amendment was written he didn’t think the founding fathers ever “intended that children would be bringing guns to school. Does the right to bear arms include a citizenry where some are armed with automatic assault weapons empowering them to take the law into their own hands?”

   I guess those who invited the speaker that year hadn’t remembered that President Faust was once a democratic member of the Utah senate…

4. Caleb Powers Says:
   April 16th, 2009 at 11:49 am

   When I read your posts, David, I get a glimpse into a world that I hardly knew existed. I must confess not to have known who Mr. Faust was before your post (one wonders if he’s related to Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard), but his comments show that there can be common ground between the traditions of gun ownership in this country and the need for safety and security. I fully agree with his interpretation of the Second Amendment, and I would further add that there is some considerable disagreement as to whether it applies to individuals at all; there’s that whole pesky phrase about the well organized militia in there, which would appear to refer to what we would call the National Guard today, but which used to be called the militia.

   I just bought an old copy of John Gunther’s Inside USA, written in 1945 and ’46, right after WWII, and its chapter on Utah was fascinating; of course, so was its chapter on Kentucky.

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