Statistics
are not always accurate. There are different criteria surrounding how statistics
are gathered and the sources used. So I am wary when a report says, “the price
jumped 125% over the last three years.”
That
said, the statistics for gun homicides (murders) in our country and state are
sobering no matter how you look at them. Though the same annual totals are not
always available, here is what I found about the number of gun murders:
· There were 8122 in
the US in 2014.
· In North Carolina
there were 412.
· In Great Britain there
were between 50 and 60 in 2014.
· In Canada there were 172 in 2012.
Of
course, the populations vary. The population is roughly 320 million in the US, 65
million in the UK, 36 million in Canada and 10 million in North Carolina.
Though the years and populations differ, the difference between gun homicides is
stark, sobering and depressing when you compare the US and NC numbers to those
countries with whom we share a similar culture…even when translated into per
capita.
Are
we Americans more violent than Brits or Canadians? Or in theological terms, are
we more sinful? I mean, if the measure of sinfulness is correlated with gun murder
rates, one could say that Americans are at least 100 times more sinful that Brits
or Canadians.
I
don’t buy it.
Presbyterians
come from a theological tradition that understands original sin and a sinful human
nature as basic to all men and women. Though we humans like
to think that we are basically good, Christian theology says we are selfish and
self-centered, flawed and prone to sin. Our sinfulness is inescapable and
universal…. which is why grace, God’s grace, is so important to our
understanding of faith. Grace depends on God’s goodness, not our own.
Are
Americans more sinful than Brits or Canadians? Of course not. Do we have a more
violent nature? I’d argue not. Rather, we are all prone to sin and selfishness.
Then
how do we account for the startling contrast in gun murders when we compare the
US and NC to Canada and the UK?
I
think it’s clear: the difference is in the availability of guns and the
difference in gun laws.
We
Americans have a long history of rugged individualism and a propensity to see
freedom through the lens of individual rights. But as a Christian, is my freedom
primarily based on my individual rights? What about “the common good?”
When
the gun debate gets stuck on individual rights, I want to ask about the
individual rights of the students and teachers who died in Parkland. Didn’t
they have an individual right to live? Or as our founding fathers proclaimed,
an "inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
