Posted on 08/11/2005 1:31:01 PM PDT by holymoly
American gun law expert John Michael Snyder today blasted the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations for public support of UN international gun control schemes.
Snyder, a practicing Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian, said that, “Archbishop Celestino Migliore’s public support for the proposed UN international arms control treaty is a direct attack on the God-given right of law-abiding citizens to self-defense. As such, it is an attack on the very right to life itself. Coming from an official of the world’s purportedly premier pro-life entity, it comes as a shocking example of public hypocrisy.”
Migliore last month endorsed the United Nations Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. This program calls for actions that could abridge the individual Second Amendment rights of people in the United States. These include the establishment of (1) a comprehensive program for worldwide gun control, (2) an international tracking certificate which would be used to ensure United Nations monitoring control over the export, import, transit, stocking and storage of legal arms and light weapons, (3) worldwide record keeping, for an indefinite amount of time, on the manufacture, holding, and transfer of small arms and light weapons, and (4) national registries and tracking lists of all legal firearms.
“When push comes to shove,” said Snyder, “the ability of an individual to defend life from terrorist and other violent criminal action depends on whether or not that individual can get and use guns. To promote a policy that would take away that ability from the individual and turn it over to a government shows a complete lack of regard for the right to life of the individual. There hardly can be strong enough language with which to condemn outright such an attitude. Shame on this Vatican bureaucrat. Shame on him and on his supporters in this endeavor. They must be trying very hard to drive people away from church.
“Governments generally are history’s greatest mass murderers. Governments, such as those led by Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, perpetrated all the genocides of the last century. These governments first had disarmed their citizens through gun control policies, including gun registration policies. How can any supporter of restrictive firearm control policies honestly maintain he supports a right to life? That simply is not credible.”
Snyder said further that, “I and many of my co-religionists, including an untold number of priests and nuns, have been saddened and sickened by the recently-exposed outrageous perverted behavior on the part of some Catholic clergy, including Catholic prelates. Church officials’ support for policies contrary to the right of self-defense and the concomitant right to life just ads insult to injury. These guys may think they are untouchable, but they’re not. They should keep in mind that Our Lord Himself took forceful action against corrupt religious authorities in the first century and today could do the same through what the Second Vatican Council termed the People of God.”
A former NRA editor, Snyder is the author of “Gun Saint,” published by Telum Associates, LLC, the story of St. Gabriel Possenti, a Catholic seminarian who used handguns to rescue Italian villagers in 1860 from a gang of terrorists. Pope Benedict XV canonized Possenti in 1920. “Gun Saint” details the history of the international gun saint movement for Possenti’s Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners.
Named “Dean of gun lobbyists” by The Washington Post and The New York Times, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation.
John M. Snyder (GunDean@aol.com) Manager Telum Associates, LLC P P Box 2844 Arlington, VA 22202 Phone : 202-326-5259 Fax : 202-898-1939
“Gun Saint” details the history of the international gun saint movement for Possenti’s Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners.Praise God and pass the ammo!
Here's another Snyder with strong opinions about guns. This is a great essay for those not familiar with it. It's called "A Nation of Cowards".
http://www.rkba.org/comment/cowards.html
So now the Vatican wants us to give up our guns? As we would say down home, the Vatican has done quit preachin' and gone to meddlin'.
In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.
Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.
Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.
At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".
2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.
Catholic Ping!
35 When I sent you without purse and scrip and shoes, did you want anything? 36 But they said: Nothing. Then said he unto them: But now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip: and he that hath not, let him sell his coat and buy a sword. 37 For I say to you that this that is written must yet be fulfilled in me. And with the wicked was he reckoned. For the things concerning me have an end. 38 But they said: Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said to them: It is enough.
Holy moly! Talk about pimping somebody's book....
thx
Does that include nukes, anit-tank grenades, RPGs, etc. that nations want to defend their citizens?
Right-click on the image and choose "Save link as."
see #16. thx.
I have great respect for the Catholic Church. But, this will be one aspect that will turn me aganist it. Sorry but for anyone to ask for gun control espically under the guise of Religion makes me angry and makes them at some level an enemy to Freedom. The Catholic Church should know better than most. This worries me.
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