Jeremy L. Berg

Looking for a new idea for your Christmas card this year? This is a new trend I find deeply disturbing for anyone who follows the non-violent Messiah Jesus who came in fulfillment of Isaiah’s long-range hope and vision of that Day when people “shall beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4), or in our day “guns into garden tools.”

I find such “grin & guns” photos that combine big smiles and killing machines borderline demonic. The kids on the right look more afraid than happy, which is not surprising because an outlook and spirit of “fear” and self-defense is one of the key motivators driving gun lobbyists. Give me instead photos of the manger scene with a the humble baby Prince of Peace at the center of our family’s affections.

To quote a movie, “Houston, we have a (gun) problem.” Move beyond the cheap rhetoric (“Guns don’t kill, people kill”, etc.) and get into the nitty gritty in a new book God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture, edited by Christopher B. Hays and C.L. Crouch. Regardless where you sit on the second amendment and current gun laws, we at least need to stare the numbers in the face. The truth is people (with guns) kill — others and more often themselves.

Here’s from the opening of the book compiled by Scot McKnight in a series of posts he’s doing on this book:

In 2019 there were 39,707 gun deaths. The CDC’s early estimates are more than 41,000 in 2020.

There are approximately 100K gun injuries per year in America.

44% of American adults know someone who has been shot; 57% of American Blacks know someone who has been shot.

30% of Americans own a gun; 11% more live with someone who does.

At home a gun is 4x more likely to be sued in an accidental shooting, 7x more likely to be used in a crime, and 11x more likely to be used in a suicide – than for self-defense though 67% of Americans who own guns claim they own them for protection.

Firearm assaults are 6.8x “more common” in states with most guns vs. states with the least.

61.2% of gun deaths are suicides.

Between 2006 and 2017 there was a 41% increase in suicide by gun.

5% of attempted suicides not by guns are successful.

244% increased risk of suicide in a home with a gun.

820% “estimated increased risk of suicide in homes where guns are kept loaded.”

74% of gun suicides are white men.

4.5 million women  have been threatened with a gun by an “intimate partner.”

500% increased risk of murder in an incident of violence when a gun is present.

1700 children and teens die from gun murders per year.

The number one reason for Black children death is a gun.

Between 2014 and 2017 there was a 32% increase in gun homicides.

100% “increase in risk of being the victim of homicide for people who have access to firearms at home.”

Black Americans are 10x more likely to die of gun deaths than Whites.

A Black man is 15x more likely to be shot and injured in an assault than a white man.

During Covid-18 there was a 42% increase in homicides in April and May 2020 and a 30% increase in unintentional shooting deaths of children during March and May 2020.

85% of gun owners support background checks for all gun sales.