The Catholic Case for Guns, by Eric Sammons

By Eric Sammons, Crisis Magazine, Dec. 10, 2021

Eric Sammons is the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. His most recent book Deadly Indifference (May 2021) examines the rise of religious indifference and how it has led the Church to lose her missionary zeal.

I’m not really a “gun guy.” A month after my birth my eldest cousin died in a hunting accident, and after that tragedy my family pulled back from guns in general. They didn’t become anti-gun, but guns were not part of my life growing up. In fact, I didn’t handle a firearm until I was in my 30’s. Needless to say, I’ve never been part of so-called “gun culture.”

But like everyone else in America I am witnessing the gun debate being brought to the forefront once again as a result of the school shooting in Michigan. 

Cue the script. I have no intention of minimizing the unique individual suffering of such miserable events, but we all know what inevitably follows them. …