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And what bears the image of God? An inanimate weapon, or a living, breathing soul? Because in other conversations, life is important. Life is precious. Life must be protected at all costs. So if you are pro-life, then Open Carry ought to bother you. Open Carry ought to trouble you; Open Carry ought to give you reason for pause. Yes, I believe in the right to bear arms. But I also believe I have the right to live out my full potential; the right to watch my children grow; the right to flourish; the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And when we change the conversation from the right to protect guns to the right to protect God’s creation, we begin to turn weapons into tools.

      But then secondly, if we’re going to change weapons into tools.

      2. Change the Culture.

      Because Open Carry creates a culture of Wild West cowboys. That’s what was happening with the George Zimmerman case. He was playing cowboy. Taking the law into his own hands. Questioning someone who looked suspicious to him. He had no authority or training. And he even had a police record – yet still had a gun. We have to change the culture from one of crime and punishment to one of possibilities. Because if we are honest about it, long before most criminals ever resort to a life of stealing, they’ve lived through a system that has stolen from them. And that’s a culture that we have to change. By the time he’s 18 to 21 years old, he’s been robbed so many times by society that the culture has taught him how to be a thief.

      A state stole his potential by not providing adequate funding to his school district. A school system stole opportunity from him by labeling him LD in 1^st grade. A prison system stole his future from him by building him a cell when he was in 3^rd grade rather than investing in his education.

      So he does to the community what’s been done to him. He steals. The only difference is that his crime is arrest-able. His crime is convictable. When the fact of the matter is that the social inequities and unjust policies and priorities of our legislatures are accessories to the crime. In fact, there are many who should come out of state capitol buildings with their hands up because through such policies they have participated in the criminalization of youth. He didn’t get there by himself. But there were a lot of cultural conditions and systemic inequities that contributed to the crime he committed. And I’m not making up an excuse for choices we make. I’m simply saying that as a culture, we have to be willing to also look at the role we play in creating hopeless conditions where crime becomes an option teenage boys have to consider. And when we look honestly at what we as a state and nation need to do differently in terms of economic and educational policies, we begin to transform weapons into tools.

      3. Change the Curriculum.

      “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

      I think we have to take a hard look as a country at what we feed our kids both in the classroom and through media. The truth of the matter is that we are not serious yet about real education reform yet in this country or equitable education in Mississippi. There has been and still is two school systems in Mississippi. One white and affluent; and the other poor and black. And with such disparities in the classroom, the wealth gap between blacks and whites continues to widen. If we want a different kind of reality for our state, it is not coming through the legislation of guns, but through equity in education. If you want safe communities, educate the citizens. Give all students the same books at the same time. Put quality teachers in all classrooms. Enhance all schools with art and STEM programs. And then watch children rise. Change the curriculum.

      We need to ask ourselves, what are they studying? Who are they emulating? Who are they imitating? What models do we as a culture lift up to them? What values do we instill in them? What morals do we provide for them? What kind of curriculum are we giving them? When a kid’s models are hustlers, then he’s going to graduate from hustler school. When his example is to con people, then he’s going to graduate from the School of Con Artistry.

      4. Change the Economy.

      “But they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”

      Don’t miss that. Micah says, they shall sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees. In other words, they are not renters; they are owners. The economy has shifted from being someone who has to pay to use someone else’s to owning their own. You want to change weapons into tools, create pathways to ownership. Destroy systems that allow people to profit from people’s poverty and build an economy that allows people to live with dignity through honest labor. Dismantle the check cashing and title loan industries that rob the poor with sinful interest rates and provide fair alternatives to traditional banking that empower people rather than making them slaves to an unending cycle of debt. We cannot continue to have such a wealth disparity as exists in this country and think that there won’t be repercussions. When people work and still can’t afford basic needs – that’s a call for a change in the economy. When people work responsibly and can’t save enough to buy a home, that’s a call for a change in the economy. When people work one job, rest for three hours, and work another job and still can’t make ends meet, that’s a call for a change in the economy. And if the nation can bail out banks and Fortune 500 companies, then it’s time to bail out some people in upside down mortgages so they can have their own vine trees and fig trees. It’s time to bail out cash-strapped school districts so students can have the opportunity to one day own their own vine trees and fig trees. It’s time for meaningful immigration reform so that people coming to this country can have their own vine trees and fig trees. If we want to change weapons into tools, then we must do the difficult work of transforming our communities into oases of opportunity where a person’s humanity is honored and dignity is protected.

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