Obama’s Gun Control Proposals Gets Support Of Vatican

How can Vatican bureaucrats justify support for United Nations gun control initiatives while at the same time advocate the right to life? How can Vatican bureaucrats deny the right to the means necessary for defense of life against violent criminals, including dictatorial criminal governments, proliferating around the world today?

The Pope “offers his full support and cooperation” to “mechanisms for prevention, reduction, accountability and control (of guns).”

He has specifically endorsed:

• The creation of systems of marking, tracing, and record-keeping;
• The defining of criteria for the export of arms or for determining when there is effectively a surplus;
• The regulation of brokering activity;
• The inclusion of mechanisms for collecting and destroying arms in peace processes;
• The establishment of adequate standards for the management and security of the stocks of these weapons;
• The implementation of educational and awareness activities aimed at promoting a culture of peace and life, through, among other things, the involvement of different protagonists in the civil society.

The Pope gave a warning against nations undermining the authority of the United Nations by acting unilaterally. The Pope also found time to bless the U.N. flag.

The Vatican praised President Barack Obama’s proposals for curbing gun violence, saying they are a:

“step in the right direction.”

The Vatican’s chief spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Saturday that 47 religious leaders have appealed to members of the U.S. Congress

“to limit firearms that are making society pay an unacceptable price in terms of massacres and senseless deaths.”

Lombardi said, “I am with them,” in an editorial, carried on Vatican Radio, lining up the Vatican’s moral support in favor of firearm limits.

“The initiatives announced by the American administration for limiting and controlling the spread and use of weapons are certainly a step in the right direction,” Lombardi said.

Obama is trying to rally support for reinstating a ban on assault weapons and requiring background checks on all gun sales. He faces stiff opposition in the U.S. Congress and from powerful gun lobbies.

“Considering that Americans possess about 300 million firearms,” Lombardi said, “people cannot fool themselves that it is enough to limit the number and use (of guns) to impede in the future horrendous massacres like that of Newtown that shook the conscience of America and world, as well as that of children and adults.”

He was referring to the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school where 20 children and six adults were killed by a sole attacker last month.

“But it would be worse to be satisfied with words” of condemnation alone, Lombardi said. “While massacres are carried out by unbalanced or hate-driven persons, there is no doubt that they are carried out with firearms,” the Vatican spokesman said.

Lombardi renewed Vatican appeals for disarmament and encouragement for measures to fight “the production, commerce and contraband of all types of arms.”

The Obama administration is moving into high gear in putting gun-control advocates into important government positions. The administration’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), Andrew Traver, should be of particular concern. His attacks on the civilian use of so-called assault weapons raise real questions about his willingness to distort the truth for political purposes. The person nominated to be the nation’s top gun cop shouldn’t use inaccurate descriptions to scare people into supporting gun control.