Who We Are

Who Has to Die?

Posted by Wallace+

Today I made my way over to a senate committee hearing room to testify in support of a bill to close the "gun show loophole."  If you are not familiar with this issue, I urge you to educate yourself.  Following is the testimony I would have given had I been allowed to testify.  As it turns out, the bill didn't make it that far, but, instead, was pulled for lack of support.  The politics involved were, in a word, disheartening.  That being said, I believe in the cause as much as ever; in fact, all the more so. 

Please think and pray on this.  It's the right thing to do.  It's what, I have no doubt, Jesus would do.

TESTIMONY

First, I would like to thank Chairman Marsh and the members of the Committee for considering this legislation; and I want to thank the bill's patron, Senator Lucas, for introducing it. The House of Delegates may have voted the bill down already; however, it is good for us to gather, like this, as Virginians, and talk about what is best for our Commonwealth.

I come to you, today, as Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, here on Capitol Square, and I come to you as a resident of Richmond; as a gun-owner, a hunter, a patriot, a husband, a father, a Christian.

My son recently joined me on his first hunt. There were three generations of our family with us, hunting on land that my family has owned and hunted since before this country was founded. My son is only four years old. While, of course, it will still be a few years before he actually discharges a firearm, my son, like his father, won't be able to remember a time when guns were not a part of his life. And there will be a day when I hand onto him the shotguns that my father and grandfathers gave to me. In the meantime, I look forward to many hunts together.

Now, all of that said, by the time I hand those guns onto my son, there is no good reason why we, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, should not have come round to a more sensible and responsible approach to guns, and gun policy.

The Gun Show Loophole simply must be closed, in the name of law and order; in the name of good sense; and in the name of all the innocent Virginians (men, women, and children) who are victimized every year due to the torrent of guns that flows through the Gun Show Loophole.

With the Gun Show Loophole closed, the opportunities for law-abiding citizens to purchase and sell firearms will still be plentiful. This is not about taking away people's guns. This about saving innocent lives.

It is rightly asked, how many Virginians have to die?

As good a question is, who has to die? Which Virginians? Which Virginians have to die, before we come round to doing the right thing?

I pray that, by the time I hand my guns onto my sons, we Virginians will have done the right thing. Otherwise, countless more innocent Virginians will die. And, I dare say, in generations to come, future Virginians will look back on us and wonder how it was that we couldn't see clear to do what was and is so clearly the right thing to do.

May God give us the courage and the good judgment to do the right thing and close the Gun Show Loophole.

GUN SHOW UNDERCOVER

"One in every three guns used in illegal gun trafficking is connected to a gun show." -- U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms