God, guns and Florida’s folly

In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to signal a invoice into legislation that may permit Floridians to hold guns and not using a allow or coaching. In different phrases, “Grab a gun, boys, and let’s go shoot some stuff/people/whatever!” Just what Florida wants.

Two of the highest 10 deadliest mass shootings within the U.S. befell in Florida — Pulse nightclub and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The solely state with extra mass shootings within the high 10 is Texas (which holds 4 of the highest spots). In Florida, from 2014 to 2020, murder by firearms steadily grew from 4.4% to six.3%. And in keeping with the Gun Violence Archive, throughout that very same time interval, 615 kids and teenagers (0-17) died from gun violence. In 2020, Florida greater than doubled its variety of mass shootings from the yr earlier than, from 15 to 34.

But DeSantis thinks we’d like much less regulation. His rationale comes, partially, from the NRA’s bizarre maintain on the Republican Party, but in addition from individuals like gun-rights advocate Luis Valdes. Valdes’ argument goes one thing like this: If we permit everybody to have a gun, nobody will assault anybody else as a result of they gained’t know who has a gun, and that may cease them from committing crimes. Or as he put it, “Think of it like the lion in the plains of Africa on the Serengeti. They don’t know which critter out in the herd is going to kick them in the jaw.”

What’s troubling to me — moreover the pure silliness of this argument — is that it resonates with a big faction of white American Christians. In 2017, Pew Research Center discovered that “white evangelicals are more likely than members of other faith groups … to own a gun; 41 percent do, compared to 30 percent of Americans overall.”

And why do these Christians personal guns? Most of them will inform you “for protection.” The query is “protection from what?” An ever-increasing group of Christians sees the world as rising so wicked and darkish that there has by no means been a time in historical past as horrible as at this time. I assume they’ve forgotten in regards to the Holocaust, the horrors of the African slave commerce, or the time when the world was so corrupt that God needed to wipe it out with a flood and begin over. Still, they consider that white Christians are being focused, and they need to defend themselves and their religion. Thus, the guns.

Now, to be truthful, there have been mass shootings in church buildings. But, for probably the most half, white evangelicals aren’t those being shot. According to Voice of America, a number of the most infamous church shootings weren’t in white church buildings. They had been in Indian, black and Jewish church buildings. Opposition to faith might need been a think about all of those shootings, but it surely wasn’t opposition to white Christian faith. And whereas white Christians did die in a church capturing in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017, the incident stemmed from a home dispute — not from spiritual persecution.

So, what are they defending themselves from? Well, a whole lot of white Christians today concern “the libs” (cue horror music). Thanks to the relentless efforts by Donald Trump and Fox News, nobody is a better perceived menace to some white Christians than liberal Democrats. And since there are such a lot of Democrats on the market telling individuals to eat kale and demanding respect for his or her pronouns, white Christians want guns.

In Florida, Ron DeSantis is aware of this. And his name for Floridians to arm themselves is little greater than a ploy to rile up his base towards those that aren’t voting for him anyway. While working for re-election in 2020, he repeatedly quoted Scripture, conveniently substituting the phrases God wrote — ”the satan” — together with his personal phrases — ”the Left.” It performed properly at his rallies (though, I don’t assume it can play fairly so properly on the Day of Judgment). And, now, to please his terrified base, he’s providing to arm Floridians and not using a considered what a totally armed citizenry will really appear to be. Sadly, white Christians (and not simply in Florida) are shopping for it.

Cindy Sawyer, who lives in Longwood, works as a author and editor for a Christian nonprofit.