Opinion: The culture of guns isn’t protecting our nation; Safe Gun Surrender event May 13

To the women who have hearts, Julia Ward Howe sought to bring forth a Mother’s Day of Peace in 1870. She spoke powerful words:

“From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.’ Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.”

We can fancy ourselves peacemakers in this nation, but our history is not peaceful. Honest history involves acknowledging the taking of land through genocide, devastation of communities across the globe through the act of enslavement that built this nation, and conflicts fought for nearly every year of our history. Over 90% of our nation’s years of existence have been in armed conflict. Just because we have kept most of the dangers of armed conflict from taking place on our soil doesn’t mean we haven’t been drinking at the wells of violence across the globe.

The origin story of our nation is deeply violent. And today the war zones we pray for across the world, do not mean the violence is not on our soil. Peace is an illusion we create through conflict outside our borders. But today, the war zone is here. For generations we have supported a gun culture and used a constitutional amendment aimed at freedom to negate reforms. So many of us are stripped of freedoms because of it, though.

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The culture of guns in our nation isn’t protecting our nation, it is devastating our nation from the inside out. It is endangering lives on our streets, in our schools, churches and synagogues, and our homes. In all comparable countries, motor vehicles and cancer are the leading cause of death for children and teens. The United States stands alone in firearms as the leading cause of death for children and teens. In our nation more than half of gun deaths are caused by suicide and the next closest reason for gun deaths is murder. If we want to have a culture of life, we can’t be silent in the face of death. We all deserve better.

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This problem is multi-faceted and it requires actions from many different angles. Greater mental health funding is a deep need, but it is not the primary problem. Countless people have mental health diagnoses and do not harm themselves or others. One of the primary differences for those who do and those who don’t is simply what they have access to. Reformation of gun laws are necessary but not sufficient to change our future course. The proliferation of guns in our nation is a soul sickness. Defense at all costs is a soul sickness. The violence in our homes and streets, and wrought on the world by our nation, is a collective moral choice that we are allowing as many create a “god” of our guns.

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God and guns is not an association that makes sense. It’s a mockery of God. God liberates, creates and births miracles. God is not death. God is life. For the love of God, consider what you are called to do at this moment.

Disarm. Disarm. Mothers with hearts, and others who grieve the daily reports of mass shootings, let’s take guns off the streets this Mother’s Day weekend. Invite your spouse, child, parent, sibling or bring your own unloaded, working firearm to Safe Gun Surrender from 1-3 p.m. May 13, at Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, 15 Overbrook Place, Asheville. Or perhaps support the project by giving to the Safe Gun Surrender Fund that will be used to honor those who are willing to surrender their guns with a gift card. Find out more at 15overbrookplace.org/gunsurrender.

With hopes for peace,

The Rev. Jim Abbott, retired Episcopal priest; Rev. J.P. Bolick; Rev. Amy Cantrell, BeLoved Asheville; The Rev. Dr. Richard Coble, Associate Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church; Mack Dennis, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Asheville; Gene Derryberry, Interim Pastor, First Congregational United Church of Christ-Asheville; Lisa Forehand, Statewide Organizer, Carolina Jews for Justice; Missy Harris, Circle of Mercy Congregation; Rev. Claudia Jiménez, Unitarian Universalist; Dr. Stuart Lamkin, Pastor, First Baptist Church Weaverville; The Rev. Tami Forte Logan, Faith 4 Justice; The Rev. Robert Lundquist; Rev. David McNair, Priest of The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Mars Hill; Rev. Elizabeth Rawlings; Rev. Dr. Steve Runholt, Pastor, Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church; Rev. Nancy Hastings Sehested, Circle of Mercy; Rev. Dr. Marcia Mount Shoop, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church; Scotty Utz, Asheville Friends Meeting; Rev. Kimberleigh Wells; Rev. Sara Wilcox, Land of the Sky UCC; Rev. Stan Wilson, Co-Pastor, Circle of Mercy.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: The culture of guns isn’t protecting our nation