Editorial

Gun rights and responsibilities

Week after week, it seems, we learn of more senseless mass shootings in schools, churches, businesses and public gatherings. As Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson recently observed in a message to archdiocesan leaders:

Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, they do. Innocent children, youth and adults are senselessly gunned down by “shooters” [often children themselves] who are suffering from grave mental and emotional problems and who vent their anger and frustrations in the most brutal ways imaginable. Is there nothing we can do to prevent this madness? How should those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, respond to this unspeakable tragedy?

The bishops of the United States have repeatedly called for action on the increasing violence in our homes, neighborhoods and local communities. As far back as 1994, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) supported an assault weapons ban initially passed in 1994, but which expired in 2004.

In 2000, the U.S. bishops issued their pastoral statement, “Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice” and called for all people to work toward a culture of life, to do more to end violence in our homes, and to help victims break out of patterns of abuse.

Regarding gun violence prevention, the bishops wrote, “We support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer [especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner], and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns.”

At the bishops’ General Assembly in the fall of 2019, Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla., then chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, gave a comprehensive overview of various policy responses to gun violence, and spoke favorably of extreme risk protection orders among other options. Finally, the USCCB supports holistic measures, such as the promotion of mercy and peacebuilding in our communities through restorative justice policies and practices, ongoing encounters and discussions at the parish level regarding violence in communities.

The actions proposed by the U.S. bishops, including Archbishop Thompson, are simple and straightforward, but they are also controversial. These recommended actions include:
 

• A total ban on assault weapons, which the USCCB supported when the ban passed in 1994 and when Congress failed to renew it in 2004; 
• Measures that control the sale and use of firearms, such as universal background checks for all gun purchases;
• Limitations on civilian access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines;
• A federal law to criminalize gun trafficking;
• Improved access to and increased resources for mental health care and earlier interventions;
• Regulations and limitations on the purchasing of handguns;
• Measures that make guns safer, such as locks that prevent children and anyone other than the owner from using the gun without permission and supervision; and 
• An honest assessment of the toll of violent images and experiences which inundate people, particularly our youths.

For some, these proposals represent a reasonable opportunity to protect the innocent and assure the public safety. For others, any attempt to limit the Second Amendment rights of gun owners is a threat to the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of a free nation. Both arguments have their merits, but the question arises whether individual rights are more important than society’s responsibility to promote and protect the common good.

As Archbishop Thompson says frequently, the Catholic perspective on public policy issues is rarely “either/or.” Most often, it is “both/and.” Catholics who are serious about their rights and responsibilities must surely see that the current situation is unacceptable. Too many have died, and the chaos that results from gun violence threatens the good order that is necessary to protect our children and community from rampant death and destruction.

Prayer is urgently needed, but so is action. We need actions at the local, state and federal levels that both respect our rights and safeguard our communities. As the bishops say in their 2020 document, “A Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence”: “Catholics and all people of good will are urged to contact their senators and representative to support policy and legislative measures that uphold the safety and well-being of all persons in our communities.”

As Pope Francis said in his invocation for peace on June 8, 2014, each of us must “instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve genuine, lasting peace. … [We must] keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation.”

Let’s end the vicious cycle of gun violence. Let’s commit ourselves to praying, and working, for true peace.

—Daniel Conway