The Parsha begins by discussing the rules of voluntary wars. The Torah is not against war and weapons but there are guidelines.
My former Monday night Chavrusa was once innocently carrying a sword down Granby Street when he was detained by the authorities. He had responsibly wrapped his sword in a towel but one of the obnoxiously nosy neighbors mistook the sword for a rifle and called the police. At the time, the police were frantically searching for the “beltway sniper”. For a tense fifteen minutes my chavrusa was compelled to explain that he was not secretly killing people and that he was late for his seder in Mishnayos. We had to catch up the next week.
I am totally for the right of citizens to bear arms. The fact that the police could stop a Jewish boy carrying two firearms (not to mention a sword) and let him drive away a few minutes later (to my house) says a lot about the country we live in.
At the same time, I will point out that he DID wrap the sword in a towel. Many responsible people carry guns, but you would never know. Even the military in this country do not walk around flaunting weapons off base. There is a certain reserve and sense of appropriateness when it comes to tools of destruction.
I can understand that in a country at war, like Israel, there is a need to carry weapons openly, but why does Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin have a DEAD Grizzly bear in her office? I may vote for her, but I cannot begin to comprehend why it is fun to take a picture of yourself and your eight year old daughter with a bleeding moose. Did she wake up one morning and say “I must shoot a moose today and show my daughter how to tear it’s throat out”? She probably did.
(Admittedly, a vice president who shoots moose and bears would be an improvement over our current VP who shot his best friend, but that is besides the point). Americans are so proud of that heartwarming story of President Teddy Roosevelt who was too gentle to kill a bear in cold blood after his devoted aides tied it to a tree. It was so funny and special that it inspired the Teddy Bear. What kind of people are we if that is a sign of a gentle president? He was too gentle to shoot a tied up bear in cold blood. Wow.
We slaughter animals to eat and we carry guns for protection. I am seriously considering walking three blocks south to do kapporos on the front lawn of the PETA national headquarters. I have trouble, though, with a governor who spends her day at the office staring at the corpse of a one thousand pound animal who her father shot for fun.
In terms of the Teddy story, it seems, based on the version you linked to in Wikipedia, at least, that it was not that he was too gentle. Rather, that it was unsportsmanlike, which is a different connotation and implication — one of honor, not one of gentleness. Remember, this was part of a hunting competition.
Kol Tuv,
Josh