Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 3:17am

Catholics, The 2nd Amendment, & Subsidiarity

Ryan Harkins took an initial look at how Catholics should look at the question of whether there is a natural right to own guns in a post last week. The basic thrust of Ryan’s argument, and I ask him to correct me if I misstate this, was to examine the question of whether the benefits of private gun ownership outweighed the potential social evils. This is, in a sense, an obvious way to look at the question. If one is trying to determine the rightness of allowing people to own something potentially destructive, it would seem natural to take a “do the benefits outweigh the dangers?” approach.

I’d like to take a slightly different approach, looking at both the actual text of the second amendment and Catholic Social Teaching. The second amendment reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The libertarian approach to this is to assert that an armed citizenry is required in order to provide a counter-weight to the power of the government. However, I’m not convinced that the thinking behind the second amendment was a merely a balancing of powers in this sense. Rather, it seems to me that to a great extent the US Constitution is written with the point of view that people possess certain natural rights and duties, and that from these spring rights and duties of the government. My understanding is that one of the major controversies in regards to the second amendment (one spoken to fairly definitely in last June’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision) has been whether it secures a right of state militias to have weapons, or a right of individuals to have weapons. While in effect my opinion on the matter lies closer to the individual right side, it seems to me that there is an important distinction which has been increasingly lost in our modern mass society:

That the Founders imagined a society in which the militia was made up of ordinary citizens, and that the right of the militia to bear arms thus stemmed from a right of each individual to self defense and protection of his community’s laws and social order.

I’m not sure I’m explaining this well, so let me start by looking briefly at a hierarchical European approach to arms and social order, such as would have (either through experience or through mythologized history) formed the background against which the authors of the Constitution thought. In a feudal/monarchical system, permission to bear arms (and what sort of arms you were allowed) was something granted by the lord. As the authority, the lord or monarch possessed the power to determine which orders of society, or which members of those orders, could have arms of what type. One of the things that set the British experience of the last 200-300 years off from that of much of Continental Europe was that in the late middle ages and renaissance the peasantry had vanished from Britain, replaced by the yeomanry: freeman who could own land and own their own weapons. In almost no country were peasants (those who were bound to the land and often had highly limited if any property rights) allowed to own weapons of warfare, though obviously the farming implements they owned could be plenty dangerous against anyone other than a properly armed cavalry or heavy infantryman.

In opposition to this, the experience in the American colonies (except when foreign mercenaries were brought in by either the British or the French) was that of militias being raised of local freemen and land owners — men who owned their own weapons. More importantly, local law enforcement and militias were under the command of the people themselves or their elected representatives, not of some ruler holding power in his own right. Thus, law enforcement and militias drew their authority to bear arms and enforce order from the right of the people themselves to bear arms and enforce order within their communities.

Moving from the practical to the theoretical: I would argue that the right and duty of law enforcement to provide order and the right and duty of the military to protect a nation stems from the natural rights of the citizens who make up the community.

Now why, given that, do we even have police? Why have a court system? Why have a military? In a sufficiently small community one might have need of none of these. A village council might settle disputes and judge crimes, while members of community policed themselves and gathered under the direction of mutually acknowledged authorities to defend the village. But in anything like a large community, it becomes necessary to have formal institutions for policing, adjudicating disputes, judging criminal cases, and securing defense for the community in order to assure that these duties are performed consistently and fairly.

However, since the existence of police forces and militaries springs, at root, from the right of the individual to defend himself and his family, and from the right of the community to enforce order, it seems to be wrong to insist that the individual should not retain any right to own the tools with which to protect himself and his family and to assist in enforcing order in society. Not only would such a complete ban smack of shifting to a view of authority in which weapons are the sole prerogative of the ruler (more along feudal lines) but it would also leave individuals without any means of protect and communities without any means of enforcing order in those situations in which larger institutions break down.

Does this have any basis in Catholic Social Teaching?

To my knowledge, there has been no in-depth discussion of the source and exercise of the right to bear arms in the context of CST. However there are some precedents to work from. Although the Catholic Church long lived in tacit agreement with feudal systems of government in which property ownership was to a great extent seen a springing from the will of an aristocratic class, in the last 150 years (explicitly in Rerum Novarum and subsequent CST encyclicals) the Church has developed and understanding of economics and property rights in which individual ownership of the means to provide for oneself is a natural human right. Given that defending oneself is also a natural human right, it would not seem unreasonable to assume that owning the tools necessary to exercise the right to self defense is also a natural human right, rather than something held only by rulers and those designated by them.

The argument that individuals retain the right to possess weapons for the defense of themselves and their local communities would also seem to fit with the subsidiarity, whereby social duties are performed by the most local unit possible. While it is certainly important to have local police forces and militias, the authority most able to deal immediately with an intruder in your house at 2am is you — and the people most able to prevent looting and other crimes in your neighborhood during a natural disaster or other social breakdown are the able-bodied citizens of that neighborhood.

Does this mean people should be able to own any kind of weapons? Atom bombs and rocket launchers? Machine guns?

I would argue that it does not. Even in modern warfare, the appropriate tools for defending a single house or for enforcing order in and defending a neighborhood are small arms — not artillery and machine guns. Thus, it would seem reasonable to me to argue that the individual only has the right to own small arms. Larger and more deadly weapons can only be properly owned by a community of such size as to need such a means of protection.

Does this mean there should be no restrictions on small arms ownership?

I don’t think it means no restrictions, but it does mean that people should be allowed to own and train with small arms that would be functional for serious defense purposes. The restrictions I would be most in favor of would relate to making clear the responsibilities which come with such ownership, and the gravity of mis-using those rights. To the extent that I would see owning weapons as being equivalent to assuming on a small scale the duties of local police and military work in one’s community, I would be strongly in favor of punishing those who commit crimes using guns with all the severity which would be used on a policeman or soldier who disobeyed orders and used his weapon to commit crimes.

I’d also be conditionally in favor (subject to practical considerations) of laws which require that one be licensed in some sense in order to own weapons — though the only restrictions I would want to see in that licensing would be in regards to lack of criminal record and the possession of some basic safety and legal training in regards to weapons and their uses.

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Paul
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 5:00pm

If one looks at Catholic social teaching (e.g. the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church), I can find nothing which directly supports the absolute right to own small arms. As far as I can see, all the places where such weapons are mentioned, it is heavily emphasized that (e.g.) “Appropriate measures are needed to control the production, sale, importation and exportation of small arms and light weapons”. This would support a conclusion that the ownership of such weapons is always a prudential matter, and thus not an absolute right.

Darwin/Brendan
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 5:09pm

Paul,

Point taken.

And I tried to be clear that there is, to my knowledge, no specific Catholic treatment of how the natural right to self defense (which the Church does recognize specifically in the Catechism, 2263-2265) plays out in regards to the question of whether one thus has a right to the means to self defense. Similarly, I am not aware of any statement in Church documents (as opposed to the speculations of individual theologians) as to whether the duty to defend the common good and societal order springs from the rights and duties of the individual, or is a prerogative of “just authority” but never the people.

However the passages such as you cite are invariably about the containment of various political ills associated with the arms trade and societal disruption, and I’m not clear that one can conclude from the existence of these passages (and silence on the above mentioned matters) that the Church thus teaches that the individual does _not_ have a right to the means to exercise his natural right to self defense.

o.h.
o.h.
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 6:02pm

I assume that “criminal record” comes with an “etc.” for other reasonable restrictions, e.g. mental illness, the existence of certain kinds of injunctions, etc.

Sometime soon I have to ask your opinion on the catechetical series I’m using with Offspring #1, and some interesting assertions it makes regarding Church teaching on labor issues.

DarwinCatholic
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 7:19pm

I assume that “criminal record” comes with an “etc.” for other reasonable restrictions, e.g. mental illness, the existence of certain kinds of injunctions, etc.

Most definitely.

Sometime soon I have to ask your opinion on the catechetical series I’m using with Offspring #1, and some interesting assertions it makes regarding Church teaching on labor issues.

Some have claimed that when I discuss unions I should have my sanity license revoked, but I shall endeavor to behave myself. 🙂

Michael Enright
Michael Enright
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 7:37pm

I think that when most discussions of the second amendment get off track is dealing with the term “militia”. The founders would not have accepted a standing army (which would probably include the national guard as a part thereof) as dangerous to freedom.

Paul
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 8:43pm

Is there a right to self-defense that might be lethal? Yes: the Catechism certainly supports that (#2263-2264). But that is not the question at issue — but rather: Is there an absolute right to own a particular weapon that may be used in self-defense? We both see no teaching directly on the issue. In which case, we then have to look for indirectly related statements, to see what bearing they might have on the question.

In the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #511, it says: “Appropriate measures are needed to control the production, sale, importation and exportation of small arms and light weapons, armaments that facilitate many outbreaks of violence to occur. The sale and trafficking of such weapons constitute a serious threat to peace: these arms kill and are used for the most part in internal and regional conflicts; their ready availability increases both the risk of new conflicts and the intensity of those already underway.”

It is very hard to read that and avoid concluding that, in the appropriate circumstances, a state might legitimately decide to ban the production or sale of small-arms, on the grounds that it would make an existing situation worse. If that conclusion is accepted, then, following on, it would seem that there could be no absolute right to own such a controlled weapon.

John Henry
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 10:10pm

I would tend to agree with Paul and Ryan that this is a question of proportionality rather than a ‘right’ to firearms as a means of self-defense. There are significant limitations, for example, to individual property rights (e.g. taxes). A restriction on firearms in some contexts could similarly be a reasonable limitation on the right to self-defense.

That said, I think a good argument can be made that there are proportionate reasons in the U.S. (as well as Constitutional support) for allowing citizens to own firearms.

As an aside, I thought you were skeptical of additional Catholic ‘rights talk’ DC. Are certain commentators references to your ‘love’ of guns valid? 😉

DarwinCatholic
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 10:26pm

Paul,

We’re in agreement as to the legitimacy of self defense (and I assume to self defense being a natural right) which might some times be lethal.

Is there an absolute right to own a particular weapon that may be used in self-defense?

Actually, I would say: No.

Come to that, the 2nd Amendment (which is what I’m trying to defend from a Catholic point of view here) actually doesn’t specify any particular weapon either — and I don’t dispute (though perhaps some of the founders would have) the Supreme Court finding that some kinds of weapons (all fully automatic firearms, for instance) can quite legitimately be banned.

What I do think one can defend from a Catholic point of view is the claim (which would seem to be essentially a 2nd Amendment one) that since one does have a natural right to self defense and to defend and maintain order in one’s immediate community, that stemming from this would be a right to possess those weapons that might legitimately achieve those aims.

Given that those are aims of limited scope, I would also see strong reason to restrict individual ownership of weapons that go beyond those needs. (After which I’d proceed to argue that given the wide availability of guns in modern American society, it would not be realistic to claim that a total ban on personal ownership of guns would be compatible with allowing people the tools for defense of themselves and their immediate communities.)

Now, I take your point on the Compendium of Social Doctrine, however given that it p511 comes right between p510 which discusses the need to get rid of landmines (which significantly it goes on to call “a type of small arm that is inhumanly insidious”) and p512 where it strongly condemns the practice of recruiting child soldiers, I guess my big questions would be: Are the “small arms and light weapons” the sort of non-full-auto rifles, pistols and shot guns which are currently legal in the US? And, are we talking here about private citizens owning guns, or are we talking about local strongmen buying crates of AK-47s to hand out to their gangs of boy soldiers?

Given that the second half of p511 says:
The position of States that apply severe controls on the international transfer of heavy arms while they never, or only very rarely, restrict the sale and trafficking of small arms and light weapons is an unacceptable contradiction. It is indispensable and urgent that Governments adopt appropriate measures to control the production, stockpiling, sale and trafficking of such arms [1076] in order to stop their growing proliferation, in large part among groups of combatants that are not part of the military forces of a State.

I guess I’d take it to be a pretty straightforward denunciation of countries making a policy of allowing unrestricted sales of everything from AK-47s to land mines and rocket launchers to trouble-makers in the third world. It doesn’t really strike me as addressing the question of whether households have a natural right to be able to own those weapons which, under the current technological and social conditions, would be sufficient to defend the household and its neighbors from harm.

DarwinCatholic
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 10:34pm

John Henry,

As an aside, I thought you were skeptical of additional Catholic ‘rights talk’ DC. Are certain commentators references to your ‘love’ of guns valid?

Well, the specific examples I am concerned about in regards to “rights talk” pertain to claiming rights to be given something (a right to health care, a right to housing, a right to education, a right to a living wage) rather than a right to be able to possess something if you have the means to acquire it.

I certainly would not say that a “right to bear arms” means that the state is obligated to give you a gun — simply that it may mean, if guns are the only culturally and technologically reasonable means by which you can defend yourself and your neighbors, that you should not be restricted from owning a gun if you choose to go out and take steps to acquire one.

More generally,

I recognize that I’m pushing a point here and trying to make an argument that may in the end not hold up. I’m going ahead and defending it strenuously in order to see how well the argument works (and try to make sure that I’ve presented my thinking thoroughly) but I recognize that this certainly is not “what the Church teaches”. At best, I’m hoping that it looks like a fairly reasonable conclusion based on what the Church teaches.

So while I’ll continue to defend and clarify in an attempt to see how well this argument works, please understand that I’m not trying to simply assert, “The Catholic Church says you have the right to bear arms,” but simply to see if one can successfully make an argument for the personal right to bear arms within a Catholic context.

Mark DeFrancisis
Mark DeFrancisis
Friday, January 2, AD 2009 11:15pm

Startling how DC outright confesses his embrace of the rights to consume and possess, if one has the means, right as he rejects to the rights to be nourished educated, housed and paid equitably…

DarwinCatholic
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 12:03am

Mark,

If you read my post a while back about “rights talk”, which is what I’m referencing there, I argued that the “right to housing” is not a natural right in the sense that if one is simply left to oneself and does nothing to create one’s own housing, one does not have any housing. The right to free speech, on the other hand, is a natural right in that one is fully capable of speaking until someone comes in and takes that right away from you.

I am, of course, strongly in favor of people being free to obtain education, housing, and pay — but I don’t think it’s proper to describe something as a “right” which someone else has to come and give to you. That is properly described as a duty. As in: We have duty to provide shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, pay the worker, educate the ignorant, etc.

To call those things rights, in my opinion, ignores the fact that they need to come from other people. They are not things that we naturally possess until someone else comes and takes them away from us.

I’m not clear if you’re really unclear as to the argument, or you just enjoy a chance to characterize those you disagree with, regardless of whether your characterization bears any resemblance to the truth.

Paul
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 12:11am

DarwinCatholic,

While “small arms and light weapons” has no precisely agreed-on international definition, “small arms” would generally be reckoned to include revolvers, rifles, and AK-47s; and “light weapons” would be something like grenade launchers or two-person machine-guns.

You say: “stemming from this [right to self-defense] would be a right to possess those weapons that might legitimately achieve those aims”. I think if that were changed to “… that would legitimately achieve those aims”, it would be defensible from a Catholic point of view.

For example, suppose in a particular country, two different large groups were close to being in violent conflict. It could, depending on the exact circumstances, be legitimate (along the lines of what the Compendium indicates) for a state to ban the private possession of small arms and light weapons, until the reasons for the conflict were eliminated. Though each individual could say “This weapon is for my personal defense”, the cumulative effect of everyone in both groups claiming that, and acting on it, could tip things over into open conflict, or cause any subsequent conflict to be much worse. The individual’s benefits in possessing small arms have to be balanced against the needs of society (since, after all, each individual is also a a member of society, and is affected by and benefits from it).

Opinions as to what the 2nd amendment means obviously differ quite widely. I think that if it were taken in some sense like: “Provided it benefits society, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”, that would be consistent both with the Compendium, and with much of how the law has tended to be interpreted (though not by all!).

Eric Brown
Eric Brown
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 1:08am

This is a statement by the American Bishops who make clear that people of good will are free to contradict them on the means to the end, but not the ends.

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/criminal/handguns.shtml

Blackadder
Blackadder
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 8:55am

Eric,

The ends in this case being?

Zach
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 9:13am

Eric,

Where do they say that people of good will are not free to disagree with them?

DarwinCatholic
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 10:03am

For example, suppose in a particular country, two different large groups were close to being in violent conflict. It could, depending on the exact circumstances, be legitimate (along the lines of what the Compendium indicates) for a state to ban the private possession of small arms and light weapons, until the reasons for the conflict were eliminated. Though each individual could say “This weapon is for my personal defense”, the cumulative effect of everyone in both groups claiming that, and acting on it, could tip things over into open conflict, or cause any subsequent conflict to be much worse. The individual’s benefits in possessing small arms have to be balanced against the needs of society (since, after all, each individual is also a a member of society, and is affected by and benefits from it).

I would certainly see the compendium as saying that in such a situation both the local government and outside governments should work to keep military hardware from being poured into the country. Pouring crates of AKs and RPGs into a third world country with a failing government will certainly not do anything to help the common good.

I’m more skeptical that it would necessarily be a good idea for the local government to ban gun ownership and confiscate the guns that private households already own. The question would be: who in such a situation is likely to use the power to confiscate weapons from private citizens for the common good rather than simply to confiscate weapons from everyone but their own faction?

From what I’ve read about conflicts in places like Uganda and Somalia, the problem is not that many individual citizens are armed to the teeth and ready to burst into civil war, but rather that the general population is almost completely unarmed while local strongmen have crates of weapons which they pass out to their followers. This makes it far easier for local strongmen to inflict terror on the population, because the population is unable to exercise any form of self defense against them.

So, I would certainly agree with the Compendiums prescription that when there is great civil unrest in an area shipping in weapons is an additional source of trouble. I also could theoretically see a situation in which an area was sufficiently unarmed or disarmed that it was not necessary for people to own firearms in order to legitimately exercise self defense and control of their own communities — but my concern with suggestions of a confiscatory ban on all guns or whole classes of guns (like the 70s era statement supporting a hand gun ban out of the USCCB) is that when done in the context of rising violence this merely serves to prevent ordinary citizens from defending themselves while leaving the elements of chaos (who aren’t following the law anyway) fully armed.

DarwinCatholic
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 10:19am

That said, Paul’s interpretation strikes me as being more in keeping with precedent than mine. There were, to my recollection, a whole series of papal statements in the high middle ages attempting to ban specific weapons (notably the crossbow) and ban fighting on certain days of the week and such. To my knowledge, not of this was particularly successful, but it is the approach with history to it.

To get a Catholic understanding of a right to bear arms one has to assume a new development along the lines of the right to own ones property and own the fruits of one’s labor — which was itself in contradiction to a long history of statements which tacitly accepted the peasant system.

Rob
Rob
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 10:58am

-he rejects to the rights to be nourished educated, housed and paid equitably…-

This sounds like a right to be infantilized.

I would rather be poor and free, as I am now.

Rob
Rob
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 11:14am

Actually, the Constitution was not originally meant to interfere in any of our lives. The document was written to protect states from federal interference. The 2nd amendment meant, when written, that the feds would not be allowed to disarm or disband any state militia.

It may be hard to believe now, when we think the government should tell us where to live, how to live and why to live, but the constitution was not meant to do any of these things and neither was the federal government. An early Chief Justice (Jay? I’m not sure. It was in the 1820’s or 1830’s), when asked if the Bill of Rights applied to state governments, said,without hesitation, NO! I.e., a state could infringe on your right to bear arms, your free speech, etc. The Bill of Rights only restricted the federal government from doing these things because the founders did not fear their own states (since they controlled them!). The Congregationalist church was the state church in one of the New England states until the early 19th century, Bill of Rights or no.

The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments changed all this and activist judges began to “incorporate” the rights expressed in the Bill of rights and applied them to all people.

Really unfortunate, as our states have just been pawns ever since, and not the free, cooperating nations they were meant to be. Under the original intent of the constitution, people in each state would not have their hands tied every time they try to solve a local problem (Wouldn’t it be nice if your state, with a government you elected, could declare certain areas, infested by drugs and gangs, free from guns without the federal hassle and without trying to do the same thing everywhere? And then later reverse the decision if it seemed wise to do so? They could restrict pornography without some ACLU scum breathing down their necks. The present interpretation of the constitution makes us all slaves to out-of-touch nitwits in Washington.)

Zach
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 12:37pm

Thoughtful post Darwin. I think it is clear there is a natural right to proportionate self-defense.

It is also clear that guns are a part of our reality whether we like it or not. No amount of legislation is going to change this fact. What legislation does change is who has the guns, i.e., whether the guns are in the hands of the people, the government and criminals, or alternatively, in the hands of the government and criminals alone.

I think you’re right about the natural rights case to be made for the second amendment, but I wouldn’t discount the Founders desire to limit the power of government.

The 2nd Amendment is part of the very fabric of our democracy. It helps underscore and substantiate the essential equality of all the citizens in our Republic. It does this by ensuring there is no substantial power gap between the rulers and the ruled.

I think this commitment to equality, made significant by limiting the power of the government over its citizens, is very much in accord with the Catholic conception of the common good. We all stand to benefit from there being no one group of people responsible for eveyone’s defense. After all, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The Founders were wise to diffuse power rather than concentrate it.

Eric Brown
Eric Brown
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 10:33pm

Blackdadder,

The end is the “joint effort to eliminate the criminal and deadly misuse of handguns.” We all have the same goal, but differing opinions as to how to obtain it and part of that constitutes the regulation of guns.

Zach,

You misread me. I said people of good will are, in fact, free to contradict the Bishops on the matter. They aren’t exercising magisterial authority.

Eric Brown
Eric Brown
Saturday, January 3, AD 2009 10:38pm

I’ll add that it is evident from their words that the Bishops believe people of “good faith” can and will oppose gun control measures they collectively support. However, it is implicit (thus, I made my comment) that we are not in fact free to disagree with them on an end. No person of good will, abiding by the natural law, can disagree with the Bishops on the end goal of curbing gun violence. The means — gun control laws or no gun control laws — can be debated. The ends are non-negotiable.

Zach
Sunday, January 4, AD 2009 7:38am

Oh, there is no disagreement then. I thought the “end” you were thinking of may have been something like a ban on guns.

Blackadder
Blackadder
Sunday, January 4, AD 2009 9:04pm

No person of good will, abiding by the natural law, can disagree with the Bishops on the end goal of curbing gun violence.

This is true, but since hardly anybody does disagree with this goal, I’m not sure how significant a truth it is.

Tony
Monday, January 5, AD 2009 1:46pm

If we have a natural right to self defense, wouldn’t that imply that we have a natural right to effective self defense?

What I mean by this is saying that a cat has a natural right to self defense, but I’m going to de-claw him and pull his teeth. He has a natural right to self defense, but I have effectively removed the means of the self defense.

This is important, especially in the case of women who are generally much smaller, physically weaker and less aggressive than men. This means that a woman can’t effectively defend herself against a much bigger, stronger and more violent attacker. Those “less than lethal” methods are generally used closer up, and by that time the attacker is usually within arm’s reach.

I heard a great quote: “A man use two methods to make me do what he wants. He can either convince me, or force me. A gun guarantees that he stick to the first method”.

Matt
Matt
Tuesday, January 6, AD 2009 9:41pm

As an old saying says:

“God created man, Sam Colt made them equal.”

Clearly the natural law right to defend oneself in our current milieu would allow the ownership of semi-auto hand guns and (at the least) civilian long guns. It would seem the USCCB position is contrary to this in it’s approach (but not it’s end).

It also seems to me that the “Compendium of Social Doctrine” and the USCCB (even sometimes the Holy See itself) are sometimes stepping outside of their competence when they start to make judgments about the acceptability of specific weapon systems. As regards the proscription of “indiscriminant” use of weapons which cause mass destruction, it is the ends which are objected to, not the means. It would not necessarily be immoral to use a nuclear weapon against a nuclear missile silo. By the same token, I don’t think it’s reasonable for the hierarchy to judge that there is no legitimate use for land mine technology, if they are be deployed applying the rules of just warfare. The same goes for hand guns in legitimate self-defense, this is just out of the competence of the bishops.

God Bless,

Matt

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