July 15, 2008

Sigh

Tony noted this the other day and I just saw it again on the DMN Religion blog. Evidently, a Baptist church right here in Oklahoma was planning on giving away a semiautomatic rifle to a lucky youth attending their conference. Really hard to figure out what is going on here. I guess I just don't see the connection.

But for a happier topic, here is another picture from our trip. Our Nikon Coolpix has a cool panoramic assist that really works! I took several pictures and then used their software to stitch them into one nice picture. See what you think. This one is a view of the Na Pali Coast on Kauai.



If you click on it, I think you can see a bigger version. I have a few more panoramic views to post. Maybe later this week.

8 comments:

steves said...

Evidently, a Baptist church right here in Oklahoma was planning on giving away a semiautomatic rifle to a lucky youth attending their conference.

Not surprising, but I don't have a problem with this if it is ok with the parents. I won't bother correcting the factual errors of the article. They don't bother to say what kind of rifle it is, but an 'assault' rifle is typically one chambered in an intermediate round somewhere between a light machine gun and a submachine gun. They are selective fire and are hevily regulated by federal law. Most typically cost well over $17,000.

Streak said...

Why not just hand out dynamite or C4? As long as the parents are ok with it and there are instructions?

steves said...

Holy strawman arguments, Batman. Somehow I don't see that as even remotely the same. There are plenty of parents (including myself) that would let their children fire a rifle or participate is some kind of safe, supervised activity. That doesn't mean that they would be ok with explosives (which are illegalfor most to own).

Streak said...

Perhaps. I guess I just don't see the point of giving a kid an assault rifle. A target pistol, perhaps, but an assault rifle seems very irresponsible.

I am not anti-gun, necessarily, but this culture seems to have no shortage of guns. Seems like a responsible church could give away something more positive.

Unknown said...

I don't think it is as straw-y as you intimate, Steve. As I teased out at my blog, the real issue isn't parental consent and gun control legalities here. If a church has no difficulty giving away a rifle, regardless of definitions, what is next?

I think we dickered about legalities long enough at my blog, but I think what Streak and I both object to is this mentality--and its prevalence in the Christian community.

Tony said...

Sorry--I have another Google account and I logged in with that one--the comment was from me nonetheless.

steves said...

I think that reasonable minds can differ on the appropriateness of the prize, or prizes in general. I guess that I have no problem with this. I have won several guns in raffles and my child "owns" a gun (that can she can only shoot under supervision). The church was giving the gun away as part of some kind of shooting event, so I am assuming that most of the potential "winners" have some interest and familiarity with guns.

The objection seems to be based on the kind of gun offered. So called "assault weapons" are involved in a very small percentage of crimes, but they seem to provoke a lot of fear and negativity.

Streak said...

Yeah, I think we will have to disagree on this. I think it is highly inappropriate for a church to give away a gun.