Right-wing whackjob David French: The Lawd says everyone should be packing heat.....

[marmar]

Conservative: Jesus Wants Everyone to Have a Giant Gun
David French interprets the Christian Bible as granting everyone a right to self-defense. He suggests that this means that God’s will is that people have access to guns.

January 28, 2013 |


Legislation aimed at reducing gun violence is “a limitation on a God-given right of man that has existed throughout the history of civil society,” according to an article published in the leading conservative opinion journal National Review.

The author, David French, interprets the Christian Bible as granting everyone a right to self-defense. He suggests that this, if true, means that God’s will is that people have access to guns, as they are the means for self defense:

In fact, Jesus’s disciples carried swords, and Jesus even said in some contexts the unarmed should arm themselves…What does all this mean? Essentially that gun control represents not merely a limitation on a constitutional right but a limitation on a God-given right of man that has existed throughout the history of civil society. All rights — of course — are subject to some limits (the right of free speech is not unlimited, for example), and there is much room for debate on the extent of those limits, but state action against the right of self-defense is by default a violation of the natural rights of man, and the state’s political judgment about the limitations of that right should be viewed with extreme skepticism and must overcome a heavy burden of justification.

Even if French is right about the Christian view of self-defense (though Jesus did have choice words about “ turning the other cheek“), it’s a logical fallacy to say this implies anything about restrictions on access to guns. Saying that people have a right to defend themselves if attacked isn’t the same thing as saying they should have a right to possess any conceivable means of defending themselves – presumably, French is fine with banning grenade launchers. The burden, instead, is on French to prove that universal background checks or limitations on assault weapon ownership somehow prevent people from defending themselves; to prove, in other words, that gun regulation is actually a restriction on the right of self-defense proper rather than a crime-prevention statute. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/conservative-jesus-wants-everyone-have-giant-gun

[Arkansas Granny]

1. Is he reading from a special NRA version of the bible?

[AnnieBW]

2. Blessed are the Peacemakers

Who are armed with assault rifles.

Seriously, why don't they just declare a Christian jihad and get it over with?

[Initech]

3. And the Lord sayeth unto his citizens:

"I knoweth what you are thinking, punketh. My disciples, you areth thinking "dideth he fire six shots or only five?" Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will bloweth thy head clean off, thou shalt ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk? "

Wait - where's that in the Bible?

[Bake]

4. Jesus, as I recall, told Peter to put away his sword.

And He also taught his followers to turn the other cheek and go the second mile.

I'm not sure which Bible Mr. French is reading.

Bake

[DearAbby]

5. Jesus charged up Golgotha with his AR15

over his shoulder. At the crest of the hill he dropped his weapon to his waist, and sprayed the Roman guards in a hail of bullets. There would be no Crucifixion that day, for the cock did crow three times.

Edit to add: NEW REVISED REPUBLICAN BIBLE