I don't know whether I should expect a response from David Virtue to this series of rebuttals. He has banned me from his Facebook page and has apparently prohibited me from commenting at the Virtue Online web site and his Facebook page dedicated thereto, but I won't respond in kind. I will keep the comments section here open for him should he muster the resolve to reply. That goes as well for anyone who takes his side on this issue. If he chooses to reply publicly elsewhere, I will copy and post that reply here for dissection.
For those of you who may be wondering why an Anglican priest is so adamant about this hot button political issue, I will repeat what I said here:
All liberals and some conservatives (religious and political) will write me off when I say that American gun control activism is of the Evil One. I don't give a tinker's damn about their opinions. I really do believe that my former and present gun-rights activism constitutes a war against the devil. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Hear me out.
First, for the devil to achieve his goals against traditional Christian culture, he is going to have to wage an intense war against those parts of the former Christendom that harbor gun cultures. He has been largely successful throughout the Commonwealth due to its benighted Hobbesian deference to government. The citizens of the UK, Canada, Austrialia, New Zealand et al. have essentially surrendered their arms to the state. And that having been done, just look at how that those states are now coming against the traditional rights of Englishmen and the Church. Our American Founding Fathers knew this could happen, they warned us about it, and they therefore set some things into fundamental American law, arguably the most important of which is the right to keep and bear arms.
Second, in John 8:44 Jesus said that Satan "was a murderer from the beginning." And so he takes GREAT delight in advancing his war against traditional Western culture, liberty and the Church by sending crazed gunmen to slaughter children. He gets two for the price of one.
I am convinced that I am accurately assessing this thing. Change my mind.
And that being what it is, I excoriate conservative Christians who are in a dalliance with liberal hoplophobes, including a few trad Anglicans I know. For some inscrutable reason they find themselves hauling water for religious leftists. I find it just absolutely astounding.
So I will just come out and say it right here with reference to C.S. Lewis' "The Last Battle": if you support banning weapons like the AR-15, you serve Tash (though you might get let off the hook if you're Puzzle).
You need to understand that I absolutely believe disarmament laws of the type Virtue supports *are of the devil*. That is a belief based not only on historical observation, but yes, even on biblical principles and the mind of the Church with respect to the issues of self-defense and just wars. I welcome all comers who demur, provided they do so with a commitment to facts and logic.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Communitarians, Neorepublicans and Guns: Assessing the Case for Firearms Prohibition, David B. Kopel and Christopher C. Little, Maryland Law Review, Volume 56, Issue 2 (1997)