Firearms and spirituality

[pairof44sp]

Forum friends,

Does anyone else have deeply spiritual feelings about firearms?

I do.

Please know that I understand: police officers, soldiers, and others may have a spiritual revulsion toward firearms, based on genuine experience with seeing death. I do not wish to be insensitive.

For me, handguns represent something true, something good. I am willing to be around YOU when you’re packing. Are you willing to be around ME when I’m (possibly) packing? If so, we can be genuine friends.

My former friends, who flee when they know that I’m armed? Not so much.

I don’t know how to express this, but it’s something about mutual respect, and willingness to honor personal boundaries, all under the watchful eye of the Lord of Death.

But doing in a good way, ultimately honoring the God of Life.

Am I nuts, or do firearms have a spiritual dimension for anyone else?

- signed, a little boy who used to save his allowance to buy Hangunner Magazine.

 

[Scooter22]

No. I'm blessed to own them by the 2A, but they are basically tools. Yes I like some more than others. Just like other material things. I love my family and friends.

 

[Tommygunn]

You have the right to your beliefs, but I don't attach spirituality to firearms. I appreciate firearms, and some I consider tools, while others I appreciate for the history behind them, or other reasons.
I believe in God but I guess I'm not really very spiritual, really. President Kennedy said in his inaugural address, "God's work must truly be our own," and I believe he was absolutly right (though I only very rarely quote Democrats ).

 

[stevebla]

"Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys. It realizes the ancient dream of the Jovian thunderbolt, and as such it is the embodiment of personal power. For this reason it exercises a curious influence over the minds of most men, and in its best examples it constitutes an object of affection unmatched by any other inanimate object."

Jeff Cooper

 

[Grizzly2]

First, what does it mean to be spiritual? You can be Spiritual as the Holy Spirit moves you or you can be spiritual as other spirits move you. Can we sense and know the difference yet? I'm Spiritual when the Holy Spirit literally moves me to help my fellow man who on my own, in the flesh and led by self, I probably would not. I'm Spiritual when I'm about to mow the grass (true story) and I sense the prompting of the Holy Spirit leading me to take a bicycle ride instead. I knew this prompting from before (The still small voice or prompting as some say) so I obeyed. I started to go down the hill but the prompting moved me to turn right which I did. Then I came to a garage sale sign and went there. Dropped the bike and went into the garage to look around and saw an old wheelchair. I thought I could fix it up for my wife from other parts I had and asked how much. Another man standing next to me who was also looking around the garage sale told me that I didn't want that old chair and that he had one nearly new that his mother used before she passed away that i could have. Many more stories very similar to this one that are Spiritual in nature.

Now we can be led by other spirits to do many things in life which most folks are totally unaware of. That is unless the Lord lets you see one Spiritually which can be a real shocking experience you may never forget. It is more like sensing or being aware of and perceiving something of what they are about than outright seeing with our eyes.

Spiritual towards my guns? Well yes, if I am led by a spirit of desire and sometimes even lust for some guns that we almost seem to have no power with which to resist buying one or putting one on lay away. or on credit or spending cash that could be better used for something else. Owning guns is a responsibility we have to protect ourselves, our loved ones and any we may take upon ourselves to protect for whatever reason. The Spirituality part may show itself in whether our faith is in God, Christ Jesus or the gun. For some it truly is the gun and to put your faith in the gun will most likely separate you from God and His Spirit.

That is not to say we can not really enjoy them. The danger comes when they become more important than Him. If we keep Him first, he might even help us with our skills and abilities with guns and protect us and our loved ones in ways we may or may not even perceive.

We can share a love for guns with our friends and family but again, be careful of what we place first in our lives.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I think many inanimate objects take on the ineffable personalities and mana of their former owners/users.

A minty old S&W revolver, LNIB speaks to several generations of respectful, tasteful, and cautious owners. You can picture them in your mind, slowly rubbing oil into the deep bluing and gently glosing the cylinder just so- lest they cause a turn line. You can hear their voices telling a youngster about how special this gun is, that it is the finest money can buy and hand made by proud craftsmen- and how one day it will be theirs.

Take up a ravaged and rusty Arisaka, though, and the aura becomes dark. I see a frightened young Japanese conscript, starving and diseased. He huddles in a muddy trench as the American artillery shatters the foliage around him. Each thunderous concussion tears at his resolve and sanity. All he wants is to throw down the rifle bearing the Emperor's Chrysanthemum and run. But he cant run, his legs wont work for some reason........the shells are getting closer.......

Sometimes you have to be careful listening to the whispers of artifacts. They have stories to tell, but not all have happy endings.

 

[GEM]

OK, really not for us. We don't do religion.