Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994 TAG: 9401300123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: THAXTON LENGTH: Long
It's an unusual combination - bullets and Bibles - but William Waters is an unusual man. He's both an ordained minister and a gun dealer.
Waters' store - Christian Guns and Accessories - is in a converted garage behind his Thaxton house. Inside, he has about 45 shotguns, rifles and pistols stocked on two walls.
On another wall is a sign that reads, "Jesus, not Satan, forgives and heals." A copy of Shotgun Magazine sits on the table near the wood-burning stove.
How does the Bedford Church of Christ minister respond when people ask him about being a preacher and a gun dealer?
"Why can't I go deer hunting like the next person?" he asked. "Shouldn't I be able to own something to protect my family?"
Waters, 38, said he is trying to crack stereotypes of ministers by being more in touch with today's problems.
"Some people get a stereotype of a preacher as a three-piece suit trapped in a church or a guy with his collar on backwards, totally unconnected with the outside world," he said. "I'd like to be thought of, first and foremost, as a Christian child of God. A preacher of the Gospel. An honest, taxpaying American who loves his country and its Constitution."
He used to cut trees to help support himself and his wife, Patricia. "But the closer I got to 40, the less time I wanted to spend in the top of a tree with a chain saw. As long as I think I'm doing what's best, the Lord will bless me. So far he has."
Waters grew up near Washington, N.C., and graduated from Roanoke Bible College in Elizabeth City in 1987. He has been preaching ever since. William Griffin, the college's president, remembers Waters as a vocal student.
"One never questioned where William's views were on anything," Griffin said. "He was always outspoken about how he felt about any issue."
A fellow Church of Christ minister said Waters' bluntness has caused some members of his congregation to leave. "A lot of support has been withdrawn due to his extreme positions," said Jim Herron, minister of Salem Church of Christ.
Herron said Waters doesn't represent typical doctrine of the church, particularly on the gun issue, although individual churches set their own teachings. But Waters does follow some tenets of the Church of Christ's conservative philosophy, including preaching against abortion.
Waters says disagreements about church policy led some members of the congregation to leave when he became minister. His congregation now has almost 40 members, he said.
In his other profession, Waters preaches in favor of gun owners and dealers. His store opened almost a year ago, and he said the last 30 days have been the busiest.
He attributed the increased business to pending governmental bans on several weapons he regularly stocks - like SKS rifles.
These rifles can be adapted to hold more than 10 bullets, or rounds, so they fall under the gun ban proposed in President Clinton's anti-crime bill.
His advertisement in a local paper reads "SKS Headquarters. Many semiautomatic pistols and rifles about to be banned by the federal government. Buy them while you can."
And people are buying. In the past month, he has sold about six times his previous volume - almost $12,000 worth of rifles, pistols and ammunition, he said.
Waters thinks the politicians' motivation behind the proposed gun ban is not to stem crime. Criminals will always find a gun, he said. "It's to disarm Americans, to make way for a full-fledged socialist country under the guise of crime," he said. "We have socialist, communist and Marxist politicians coming into power now. It's known and validated. That includes the president and his wife."
Clinton has called for the creation of a national registry of guns, an idea that frightens Waters. If the government knows where all the weapons are, they could be confiscated and used against their former owners, he said.
He pointed out an article in January's American Firearms Registry Magazine - "The Clinton-Marxist Connection."
"If our government ever went astray, and I think it is now, and started living against the tenets of the Constitution, I think you have the right to bear arms and correct the situation," he said. "That's the whole reason for the Second Amendment - so we wouldn't have to live under a dictator."
The whole problem of government gone astray started in 1962 when "we asked God to take a hike" by removing prayer from schools, he said. Public prayer was banned shortly thereafter, and morals faded as God's influence was systematically erased from society, he said.
"There's no absolute truth anymore," he said. "Instead of teaching our kids what's right and wrong, we teach them `Whatever feels good, do it.' "
That's one of the real reasons for the rising tide of crime, he said, not guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
Guns like the SKS rifle are used in only a fraction of crimes, so why not focus attention on the guns that being used, he wondered. But he opposes a ban on any kind of gun, because it's the person with a finger on a trigger who causes problems, he said. Most of his customers use guns for hunting or target practice.
The gun ban is part of a well-orchestrated anti-gun movement perpetuated by politicians who prey on the public's increasing fear of crime, he said.
Asked about the Clinton administration's proposal to increase the cost of a federal gun-dealer license, Waters shook his head. Licenses, now $30, could climb to $600 under the proposal, he said. The administration sees the increase as a way to decrease the number of unscrupulous gun dealers. Waters sees it as a way to eliminate small dealers.
"I foresee the time when only the ultra-rich will sell guns, and that'll be totally controlled by the government," he said. "It'll also eat up a lot of my profits."
by CNB