Opinion: There’s no place like firearms-free zones

Handguns are displayed at the Smith & Wesson booth at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas. John Locher / AP file
Published: 06-22-2025 11:00 AM |
Close to 50 years ago, a six-year-old boy and his younger sister were playing in the attic of their home. The toy the boy held was an actual firearm.
The handgun unexpectedly discharged, killing the boy’s sister. The family were active members of the church where I was serving as pastor. I don’t remember hearing how the boy gained possession of the pistol. I don’t remember what I said at the funeral. But I do remember the family praying that it was all a bad dream from which they would awaken to find the young child alive.
I remember the excruciating grief, the persistent pain, the raging anger, the unbearable guilt that consumed the parents and the young boy. In one instant, relationships changed, identities shifted and anticipations for the future blurred. Recovery could not be imagined.
This memory has come back to me as I have become involved with a group of people who are exploring the possibility of firearms-free spaces in our community, state and country, where there are more firearms than people, where there have been more than 52 mass shootings in the first three months of 2025 and where, according to the Gun Violence Archive, most firearms deaths are from handguns.
We’ve learned that whenever firearm-free zones are attempted, the Second Amendment is inevitably lifted up to counter any effort to limit when and where guns may be carried. However, we’ve also become aware that the gun culture of the United States grew not from support of the Second Amendment but from the tyranny of slavery, the tradition of militarism and white nationalism.
The drafters of the Second Amendment were particularly cautious about the rise of a professional military that might rule over the civilian population; thus, the reference to a “well regulated militia,” available for national security – not individuals, not a standing army.
There is one example of gun-free space in the Concord area. The Concord Hospital posts signs at its entrances saying there are to be no weapons carried into the hospital. However, in contrast, New Hampshire legislators are free to carry guns while they meet together in their chambers.
The divergence of these two leadership venues leaves us in a quandary. To sort it out, it makes sense to consult the wisdom of others.
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Edward Kennedy has said, “A gun is an instrument of instant and distant death capable of killing from afar, wounding without contact. Guns make killing as easy as buying groceries.” A character in John Irving’s novel, Until I Find You, said, “What seems worse to me is that owning a gun must to some degree encourage you to use it.”
In the Christian scriptures we read, “Put away your sword” and, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” And it is written: “The finest weapons are the worst evils. / They are universally loathed. / Therefore, help guide your nation / To the non-aggressive path. / Weapons are instruments of coercion / And devils of death. / Resort to them only in dire necessity. / Peace is our natural state of being.” (The Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu)
It seems apparent, there is an existential truth that possession of deadly force, to attack or defend, is an anathema to love of friend and enemy. Firearms are an instrument of death. They may be a threatening presence, but they render no security. The source of our security is the “power of unarmed truth.” Security may be accomplished with the offering of a weaponless right hand of hospitality to friend and adversary.
Such an honest greeting creates a safe space for expressions of diversity, inquiry, equity, love and peace with justice for all people. That is exactly the weapons-free space that some people are beginning to seek. It may be a weapons-free movie theater, a school building, a church, a sports venue, a home or even the in the space of the New Hampshire Legislature. These spaces, like the Concord Hospital, can offer sanctuary from the gun culture by posting at their entrances, “No Firearms Authorized in this Building.”
The gun culture is ripe for reform. Participation in nonviolence and collaborative peacemaking may be an introduction to a future where people can affirm that there is no place like a firearms-free zone!
Boris Pasternak wrote these words for a character in Doctor Zhivago: “But don’t you see, this is just the point – what has for centuries raised (human beings) above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth.”
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com