"Frog Hospital": Guns, Crossbows And "Purpose" As The Linchpin Of Moral Decision-Making

Fred Owens

22 hrs · 

Some folks that we can politely call Second Amendment Enthusiasts will be quick to point out that the fellow in Toronto did not need an assault rifle to kill ten people. He used his van instead. "So why should we ban assault rifles, why not ban vans?"

One might say in response that a van has many useful purposes, but a rifle has a very limited use. You can't use a rifle to pry open a can of paint. I see guns used in movies to shoot off the lock on a door, but does that really happen? I would prefer using a crowbar for that, and you can kill someone with a crow bar. For that matter you could kill someone with a can of paint. For instance, the application of a truly hideous yellow paint might throw a person of delicate taste into a fatal shock.

I am being absurd, I apologize.

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Judy Gottschalk Booth There's lots and lots of guns in Afghanistan. Maybe more than here. Per person.

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 · Reply · 17h

T Lane Dexter If you check out the advancements in 3D printing, you'll realize "gun control" (civilian disarmament) is about dead. We're at the point where you can print your own. "Can't stop the signal." :-)

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T Lane Dexter My hat is off to Pathan tribesmen in Afghanistan who make guns with little more than drills, files and a few more hand tools. But these are modern times. :-)

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 · Reply · 12h

T Lane Dexter Some things never change. I can always count on Olav for a well researched, reasoned and rational response... 🙄

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 · Reply · 9h

Thanks for focusing "purpose" as a touchstone of "The Good." Although "Natural Law Theology" is far from perfect, Aquinas and his fellow scholastics were "onto something" when they prioritized "purpose" in moral theology. The primary (and original) purpose of guns was to take life. And the specific purpose of handguns is to take human life. Consider the revealing history of Pope Innocent III's prohibition of cross-bows because they crossed a red line in "the mechanization of carnage." http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/pope-innocent-iii-condemned-archery-at.html I marvel that Catholic "infallibilists" make NO mention of Innocent's condemnation of archery, which - by extension - outlaws all subsequent mechanization-of-killing. Of course, we see what we want to see. And, predictably "good Christians" have no trouble rationalizing Trump. Even so, there is a categorical difference between people who try to "see" and those dedicated to denial.