The Christian Vanguard

  Is the AR15 a weapon of war? Yes it is. There are many commentators online, some very knowledgeable people, and people that I personally like, who argue that it is not. In order to assess the argument, we need to define our terms first. So, the first thing we need to figure out is, what is an AR15?  Contrary to popular belief, “AR” does not stand for Assault Rifle or Automatic Rifle, or anything like that. Rather, it stands for Armalite 15, Armalite being the company that designed the rifle. So it’s just a reference to the original company, which eventually got bought by Colt. Here is a photo of the prototype that Armalite designed. And the 15 just refers to the model number, a variant of the AR10, which shot a different caliber bullet.  Over time, this style of gun, sometimes called a platform, of rifle has evolved over the years. In many modern versions, there is no carry handle, a delta ring, a fixed stock, or some other relatively minor feature. But the parts and th...

Pacifists exists, despite my best efforts. Pacifists are those who hold that violent acts are not permissible, and so acts such as war are also not permissible. This view is popular among the secular left and mixed within Christianity, though notably in the Anabaptist movement. It occurs me to though that there might be some ambiguity in the word “violence” that, without clarification, may lead to either absurdity or inconsistency.