Guns, guns, guns. What more is there to be said about guns?
While perusing the news I discovered the following article at Yahoo News about Russia selling weapons to Syria.
Israel warned the United States in recent days that Russia plans to sell advanced ground-to-air missile systems to Syria despite Western pressure on Moscow to hold off on such a move, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
[...]
Western nations have repeatedly urged Russia to block the sale, which they argue could complicate any international intervention in Syria’s escalating civil war.
Essentially, Russia has lots of weapons, and is selling them to the Syrian government to suppress the rebellion.*
In the great gun debate, many Catholics bring in the following passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church to support their preference for stricter gun control.
2316 The production and the sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them.
The interesting thing about this passage is that if it is read as though it applies to private gun ownership, then it alleges that my 9mm pistol or Bushmaster AR-15 used for defense of my home will violate the common good and throw the entire international community into disarray. Quite a stretch. So we put the paragraph in context [emphasis mine]:
2315 The accumulation of arms [chemical, biological, nuclear, etc.] strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race [as in the arms race between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.] does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations;111 it thwarts the development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation.
2316 The production and the sale of arms [as in large scale production of weapons for military use as mentioned above] affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them. [Public authorities as in the League of Nations, the U.N., etc.] The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order. [I know not a single private gun owner who seeks to promote violence and conflict among nations, or compromise the international juridical order. I've never even heard of such a thing.]
The purpose of this post is not to delve into who is right or wrong, or justify the use of this or that, but to insert the passage from the Catechism into its proper context. It is not meant to address private gun ownership, that is covered in Paragraph 2264 under “legitimate self-defense” which I have covered a bazillion times or so. St. Thomas Aquinas even wrote a treatise on the topic of killing in self-defense, which does not expressly mention the use of firearms, but explains the acceptable circumstances in dealing a lethal blow. Content without context is meaningless, and in this case the context is the difference between self-defense and international war. I would like to offer the following scripture to echo the sentiment from my Wednesday post,
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” ~Matthew 10:16
We as Catholics need to know what we’re talking about and must use all our powers of good judgement to know when a battle is real and to know when we’re being played. Confusion and/or misuse of passages like the aforementioned arms race vs. private gun ownership works to diminish our position as one of logic and reason and
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*While the use of chemical weapons is morally reprehensible, and many of the tactics used to squash the rebellion are downright despicable, one thing we must remember is this: The Syrian government has been far more tolerant of Christians than the rebel forces have been. If Assad is removed, Christians in the region will share the same fate as those in Egypt, wholesale persecution and public execution by the Muslim Brotherhood.