To be up front: today’s article is for Christians specifically. If you’re not a Christian, then, this may not be for you, but since so many people who lean towards firearm ownership are Christian believers (or, at least, are concerned about Christian ethics), I suspect that this may be of interest to most readers.
So, the question is: Should a Christian carry a firearm?
It’s a great question, especially, when Christians have a reputation for being peaceful and peacemakers. People ask how believers can feel that they are allowed to carry a firearm as a firearm is a weapon.
The first thing that I’ll comment is that the people who ask this question haven’t studied the original languages in the Bible (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). In the original language, the Ten Commandments don’t say “Thou shall not kill.” What they actually say is “Thou shall not murder.” In other words, believers are commanded not to seek to kill people for the purpose of hurting that other person.
This information, by itself, should settle the question for Christian gun owners. As firearm owners, we don’t shoot to kill an intruder. We shoot to stop the attacker from injuring or killing someone. I heard a police officer put it this way: “You shoot to stop the attack. That attacker’s death is incidental to the issue.” (I’m not a lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice. Check the specific rulings in your state and area.)
But, maybe, you have some more thoughts that you want settled about this issue. If that’s you, you can watch Stav from She Equips Herself talk about this very issue below.
Stav makes a number of good points there. Jesus didn’t criticize his disciples for carrying weapons (swords in that day and age) but for using them inappropriately for the situation that they were in. As firearm owners, we always need to be careful to only use our firearm in appropriate situations and never inappropriately.
So, in essence, that comes down to being aware of the situation that you’re in, training for appropriate uses of your firearm (including knowing when it’s appropriate to use it versus when it isn’t), and, then, only using it in the appropriate way in the rare instance when it’s acceptable to do so.
And that’s good advice whether you are a Christian or not.