Hak Ja Han Calls for DISARMING AMERICAN CITIZENS

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Family Fed (aka HPHC),

It gives me NO PLEASURE to have to write this commentary, but the issues are SO IMPORTANT that I feel obligated to do so.

A Family Fed brother, “Bill,” urged me to watch the online “Peace Starts With Me: Peace & Blessing” event on June 5, which externally seems to have achieved a certain level of success. I would urge others to also watch this since Hak Ja Han made extraordinary statements that all conscientious Unificationists should evaluate. Roughly half way through her speech she made the following comments:

How is it possible that teenagers in schools and communities—even elementary school students—are being killed in school shootings? America’s politicians need to provide answers. In the Bible, it says “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks…but they shall all sit under their own vines.” However, is it necessary for citizens of America, the world’s superpower, to own and carry guns? Should we simply observe a situation where innocent lives are being taken for no reason? I believe the time has come for America, especially for the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC)—America’s Christian ministers—to take a stand for peace.  (see text of Hak Ja Han’s speech at June 5, 2021 Peace & Blessing event)

Later in the day, she spoke to church leaders and made the following comments:

I don’t know if the United States initially allowed the Pilgrim fathers to own guns because they had to defend themselves against predatory animals while pioneering the western part of the United States, but why should people need to have guns at this time? The fact that anyone can own a gun is a problem.

Why do you need a gun if you can make laws and govern the people well? We need to change all of these structures.  (see reading of Hak Ja Han’s speech to leaders at Morning Devotion)

To summarize her key statements on these issues:

• She asks “how is it possible that teenagers in schools and communities—even elementary school students—are being killed in school shootings?”  This is an important question which I will try to address below.

• She asks, “is it necessary for citizens of America…to own and carry guns? Should we simply observe a situation where innocent lives are being taken for no reason? I believe the time has come for America, especially the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC)—America’s Christian ministers—to take a stand for peace.”

It is evident that she is calling on America’s Christian ministers and ACLC to “take a stand for peace” and address the “situation where innocent lives are being taken for no reason” by addressing the alleged cause, “citizens of America (who) own and carry guns.” Clearly, she is calling for an end to American citizens “own(ing) and carry(ing) guns.”

Her next statement demonstrates an appalling ignorance of American history and geography:

“I don’t know if the United States initially allowed the Pilgrim fathers to own guns because they had to defend themselves against predatory animals while pioneering the western part of the United States?”

Can someone let her know that there was no “United States” at the time of the Pilgrim fathers? The USA would not come into being until 167 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The Pilgrim fathers did not “pioneer the western part of the United States.” They needed firearms to defend themselves not only against “predatory animals” but also against predatory humans since not all of the Native American tribes were peaceful.

Since she is discussing the beliefs and practices of the Pilgrims, it is instructive to see how they began their church on Sunday:

"They assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door; they have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes the governor, in a long robe; beside him on the right hand, comes the preacher with his cloak on, and on the left hand, the captain with his side-arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand; and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus they are constantly on their guard night and day.” During the early years of Plymouth, failing to bring your gun to church was an offense for which you could be fined 12 pence! (mayflowerhistory.com)

• Her next statements call for disarming citizens: “why should people need to have guns at this time? The fact that anyone can own a gun is a problem. Why do you need a gun if you can make laws and govern the people well? We need to change all of these structures.”

It is one thing for a religious leader to call people to repent and embrace the love and peace of God. It is another to call for the disarming of law-abiding citizens. What is a man or woman “of peace”? Is it someone who is defenseless, waiting for a police officer who may or may not show up in time, or is it someone who has the ability to defend his/her family and community and chooses to use firearms only to defend human life?

A person can afford to live in gated communities or in a palace surrounded by bodyguards may not feel the need for firearms, but those who live in poorer neighborhoods where there is more crime may want to protect themselves. Don’t they have a right to do so? Why does the “Mother of Peace” feel she has the right to call for depriving American citizens of their right to self-defense?

She seems to think that solving violence is a matter of “making laws.” Is she aware that 94% of mass shootings take place in “gun-free” zones (Mass Public Shootings Keep Occurring In Gun-Free Zones: 94% Of Attacks Since 1950?) created by such virtue-signaling, but impotent, “laws?” Evil individuals choose to go to such “gun-free” places precisely BECAUSE they know that law-abiding citizens will NOT be carrying firearms?

There are too many problems with her historically naïve views to discuss in detail, but let me point out just a few facts:

• Large cities in the U.S., which already have strong gun control laws making it difficult, if not impossible, for average, law-abiding citizens to own firearms, report ever-rising rates of homicide.

• An estimated 260 million people were murdered by their own governments in the 20th century.  In each of these nations, the mass murders were preceded by disarming of the population. https://archive.org/stream/FiveCasesOfGenocideInTheTwentiethCentury19151995101/

Gun%20Control%20and%20Genocide%20-%20Mercyseat.net-16_djvu.txt

• Gun control laws in colonial times and after the Civil War were enacted to deprive minorities, especially Blacks in the South of their ability to defend themselves against white supremacists and the KKK.  

• The FBI reports that there are an average of 5,000 acts of self-defense with civilian-used firearms every day in the U.S.    Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens save far more lives than are taken.

• There are numerous examples of civilian concealed handgun permit holders stopping likely mass public shootings.

(for more discussion about these and larger issues, see H.J. Sean Moon’s book, Rod of Iron Kingdom.

At the end of her speech on Saturday the Han mother spoke of her intention to “to strengthen the presence of The Washington Times in the heart of D.C. so that the paper can forge stronger ties with American leadership.”

I’m not sure which “American leadership” she wants to forge a stronger tie to, but I doubt there are many writers at The Washington Times who would support her advocacy of increased gun control and gun confiscation. Maybe they can be replaced by ex-reporters from the Washington Post, who agree with this goal on the leftist agenda.

Regarding her question about “how is it possible that teenagers in schools and communities—even elementary school student—are being killed in school shootings?”  The vast majority of school shootings and violence in America come from children growing up in fatherless families. Instead of seeking to disarm the American population, why not call for promoting in every city and town in America True Father’s Absolute Sex education about saving sex for marriage and building strong marriages where fathers are present in the home? The political party currently in power in D.C. opposes such education and could be impacted by hundreds of ministers taking to the halls of power to demand that transgender, “sexual rights” education be immediately replaced with education that values preparation for marriage and responsible fatherhood.

At a time when the rights of free speech and freedom of religion are under unprecedented attack one would wish the “Mother of Peace” would champion those rights and advocate their expansion to other countries around the world. Yet instead of doing so, she advocates the revocation of 2nd Amendment rights in America.

Since she advocates that hundreds if not thousands of Christian ministers around the nation mobilize to oppose civilian gun ownership isn’t she replicating the co-opting of Christians by the Peace Movement during the 1970s and 1980s? In these decades Protestant and Catholic clergy were manipulated by the New Left to oppose the “Peace Through Strength” policies under several presidents and especially Ronald Reagan. These same policies, strongly supported by her husband, Sun Myung Moon, led to the downfall of Communism. True Father understood that you don’t achieve peace through disarmament. And now 4 decades later, law-abiding residents of America’s inner cities are paying the price as they lack the ability to defend their homes and businesses.

The larger issue is that she seems to advocate a top-down approach where a strong, centralized government maintains “peace” by keeping (disarmed) citizens in line by “making laws” and “changing all of these structures.”  In contrast, the anointed youngest son, whom she fired after True Father’s passing from 7 positions in Korea and in the U.S., advocates an approach where clear limits on federal power with guarantees of citizens’ rights of speech, worship, self-defense and due process allow for the flourishing of God’s Kingdom from the bottom-up. I think I know which “Kingdom” the founders of our nation would pick.

Family Fed brothers and sisters, is such a foray into a leftwing agenda really an example of “Headwing” ideology? It’s obvious that I don’t think so, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Richard A. Panzer, Ph.D.

President, Unification Sanctuary USA

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[1]  Rummel, Rudolph J., Power kills: democracy asa method of nonviolence, Transaction Publishers, New York, NY, 1997.

[2] William R. Tonso,“Gun Control: White Man’s Law,” Reason Magazine, December 1985, http://www.guncite.com/journals/gun_control_wtr8512.html

[3] Philip J. Cook andJens Ludwig, “Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use ofFirearms,” NIJ Research in Brief (May 1997); available athttp://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/165476.txt.

[4] Gary Kleck, Marc Gertz, Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence andNature of Self-Defense with a Gun, 86 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 150(1995-1996).