Ben Witherington and Guns

In April, a lone student at Virginia Tech strode around the halls of his campus and slaughtered thirty-two unarmed people before killing himself. In response, Dr. Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological Seminary trotted out a meandering argument that Christians should support gun control. BW3 simultaneously demonstrated a misunderstanding of firearms, U.S. Constitutional history, and the impact of gun control laws in other countries. He did, however, demonstrate a basic gist of Christian pacifism, which he seems to advocate as foundational for U.S. national policy...somehow. It's unclear exactly what the point of BW3's post was, or how pacifism would have benefitted the students at Virginia Tech. Which brings us up last Sunday, when an armed civilian stopped a rampaging killer in his tracks, thereby preventing even greater slaughter. Under Witherington's proposal, this woman would not have had been able to stop the killer. The facts are very inconvenient for Witherington's thesis. In today's post, he asserts that private gun ownership does not get at the root of the problem: First, I doubt any of us would dispute the notion that much of our society is frankly not well, indeed more unwell today than at any time I can remember in my lifetime. Between the mall shooting in Nebraska and the Colorado shootings it must seem like open season on innocent people, including Christians. Let me be clear however--- THE SOURCE OF THIS PROBLEM IS NOT THE LACK OF GUNS IN THE HANDS OF GOOD PEOPLE. The source of the problem is the sickness in our society, as it becomes less and less Christian, and thereby less and less human or humane. And all of us who have failed to share the love of Christ with mentally ill people, and get them the psychiatric help they need must accept some responsibility for what happens as our society goes south. Gee golly willickers! The problem is that our society is unwell! Let's just pass a law that society is to be well from now on, and then we don't need guns to protect ourselves from those pesky killers anymore! All that we have to do is properly diagnose every psychiactric illness of every person who has one and treat it properly, and there's no need for guns at all. Surely we can manage a 100% success rate? BW3 goes on to say that countries with strict gun control laws don't have problems like this, but does not name any countries or cite any statistics or sources. And preferring to second-guess people being shot at, he offers this platitude devoid of any policy application: Ours is a sick society. And until we realize that more guns are not the answer to the problem, we have not owned up to the sickness, nor what really makes for a cure. Jesus came to spread God's love and grace-- 'as far as the curse is found'. True, but unhelpful to the people who people who died at Virgina Tech and in Colorado Springs.