In the July 5 Catholic News Herald, a commentary about Catholics and guns by Deacon Clark Cochran claimed that we should neither possess nor use firearms. As a law-abiding Catholic in a family that owns guns, I am both disappointed and frustrated that clergy are buying into the idea that guns cause violence and should be restricted in use.
I do not advocate for violence. However, there is self-defense to be considered. The main reason most law-abiding citizens own guns, besides recreational use, is to defend themselves. I don’t think many gun-owning Catholics will claim that they intend to shoot someone with their guns unless absolutely necessary to protect their life, their property, or someone else’s life or property. I firmly believe this is the only cause a devout Catholic can use to justify shooting someone, with the exception of war. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow” (2264).
Just because guns are frequently used as instruments of death doesn’t mean they cause death. Guns are simply tools, a means to an end. Hammers can kill people, but when was the last time you heard anyone advocating for “hammer-control” laws? Skeet shooting is an official sport. Should it be renounced by Catholics because guns are involved? Many people think guns are the prevalent cause of violent death in America, but that simply isn’t true. The prevalent cause of violent death in America is original sin, which can cause a hate-filled or drug-whacked person to go on a shooting spree. Blaming America’s violence problem on the availability of guns is essentially the same as blaming America’s obesity problem on the availability of silverware.
Deacon Cochran asserts that Catholics should not own weapons of violence. But what constitutes a weapon of violence? It is a common misconception nowadays to equate violence with guns. That is unfair and irrational. Violence takes dozens of forms, and hundreds of different objects could be called “weapons of violence.” Guns are simply the easiest, most convenient way for criminals to kill people, and thus they are the most frequent instruments used. Restricting them will do nothing, as criminals have ways of obtaining illegal guns.
Guns are a two-edged sword. Yes, they are dangerous, and yes, they are frequently used for evil, but they are also the best way for a person to, in self-defense, stop evil being perpetrated against him.
Yes, Jesus responded to violence with meekness and silence. But that was His mission. It was His Father’s will and His own. Jesus also whipped and drove the money-changers out of the temple. If a man breaks into a house with mayhem in mind and an automatic carbine in his hand, a braided whip won’t go very far. A Catholic man or woman must defend their home, their children and themselves.
Yes, we do renounce lies of the devil such as “violence solves problems.” But that doesn’t mean violence is never justified. The shooter is merely trying to prevent harm to himself or his property. The killing (or, hopefully, just incapacitation) of the criminal is an unwanted consequence. As the Catechism states, “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life, and the killing of the aggressor... the one is intended, the other is not” (2263).
Jesus never lists things we should kill for, but the Church has never said killing a man is always a sin. In my opinion, self-defense is the only thing we should be ready to kill for, and considering the dangerous world we live in, Catholics owning guns is more than justified.
Simon Ohlhaut is a member of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte.
We were disappointed in Deacon Clark Cochran’s endorsement of gun control and disarmament of Catholic citizens as a means to ending today’s violence as it presents a misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching. Jesus did indeed permit the retaining of a weapon for defense (“Let him who has no sword sell his tunic and buy one” (Luke 22:36). This proposal however is more a distraction from the root of violence: the lack of Christ in our society.
In fact, a disarmed populace ruled by a heavily armed government of fallen men is a recipe for disaster. As Lord Acton famously observed: “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Punishing the good by disarming them would only allow tyranny and violence against the poor to increase. The Cristeros and Vendée martyrs of Mexico and France, as well as the Spanish Reconquista, can all attest to the importance of an armed Catholic citizenry. It is not guaranteed that the freedoms and safety we Catholics enjoy today will continue forever.
Legislative fixes to a spiritual problem are ineffective in ending violence. The only solution to reducing violence is a spiritual renewal: Our Lady of Fatima encouraged the practice of the Five First Saturdays devotion along with a daily rosary for peace. As Pius XI exhorted in “Quas Primas” in 1925, the acknowledgment of Christ the King’s rule is necessary over all peoples and its government – in their hearts and laws. Only through this will peace and harmony reign.
Michael FitzGerald, Chris Hall and Joseph Brakefield are members of St. Ann Parish in Charlotte.