The answer seems simple enough: Would Jesus do it? Some may be able to take verses here and there where he tells his apostles to buy a sword or he said “one wicked person can destroy much good” and use those scriptures to fit a round peg in a square hole. But where Jesus is absolutely clear, are the areas that contradict such behavior.
The sermon on the mount clearly gives us the picture of how Jesus wants us to behave and live our lives. And his actions prove much more than any one scripture about self protection how Jesus behaved. We are all called to follow his example.
I’ve taken to heart the concept of: If I would not do it with Jesus in my presence, I should not do it at all. If he showed up at your front door and asked to come in, what in your house would you be ashamed of if he saw it? Would you deny him to look through your belongings? He knows the deepest secrets of your heart. Attempting to keep anything hidden from him is a dead giveaway that you’re doing something you know he would not approve of.
Would you want to show him your gun collection? Perhaps he’d be proud of the fact that you’ve stockpiled 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Maybe he’d like to binge watch all the Marvel movies with you. Or play a couple rounds of Nazi Zombies on your PS5. I’m not trying to say that any of you specifically are like this, I’m just using these as examples.
I’m certainly not innocent of this myself. One of my favorite movies of all time is Blade Runner 2049. Would I want to sit down and watch something like that with Jesus? I have to admit, I’d be embarrassed at the least and ashamed at most. Another one of my favorite films is Young Frankenstein. Although it’s a classic and very funny, I would be extremely hesitant to include Jesus in a watching of that. That hesitancy is a good indicator that I shouldn’t be doing it. We can’t hide anything from God. There’s no “incognito mode” for him. You can’t just step away from his presence to do something he wouldn’t like then step back into his presence and pretend everything is fine.
So coming back to firearms. I own some myself, I have gear that compliments them as well. Aside from how Jesus told us to conduct ourselves, here is the critical question I ask myself, “does owning firearms and tactical equipment like body armor say without words that I trust these manmade devices for my safety more than I trust Jehovah to protect me?”. When Jesus sent his apostles out to perform signs and wonders he commanded them to take nothing but the clothes on their back and a staff. Because he wanted them to know what it meant to truly depend on their Heavenly Father. By owning guns and gear are we subconsciously taking faith away from God’s ability to protect us and putting that faith in these tools?
It’s a tricky question to say the least. One on hand you could say “yes, God might find my lack of faith disturbing”. On the other hand, we are physical creatures with physical needs. Having faith in God’s power doesn’t mean we can built a house without lumber and hand tools. Even Noah had to use REAL wood and REAL tools to build the Ark. Guns are real tools that can be used for good purposes. Hunting with rifles is way easier and safer than how our ancestors hunted animals. A gun is a way more effective home protection tool than a frying pan or baseball bat. We can even use guns for fun. Friendly competition shooting, skeet shooting, range time with the buddies. But…
We often do not see how much work God puts into our lives. Let’s say you were leaving the grocery store and walking to your car. Unbeknownst to you, someone was watching you, thinking about attacking you and stealing your food. But for some reason he chose not to. You would never have known God acted to keep you safe in that instance because you were clueless of the potential danger. I believe moments like this happen to us all the time but because we never see it or know it, we don’t consider it. Likewise how many times has someone considered breaking into your home and you didn’t know it because God prevented them from doing so? You own firearms, you could very easily shoot an intruder and protect your family. For a fantastic example of this, watch The Chosen Season 3 Episode 6. (Actually, watch the entire series. It’s seriously good).
Sorry for the long winded response. There’s a lot of very interesting things to say about this topic and I’m sure someone will have some good counterpoints to my post here.