A Catholic Defense For The Private Ownership Of Guns
Table of Contents
What’s The Official Catholic Position On Guns?
The private ownership of guns in the US is undeniably under attack by those who would wish to make the Second Amendment a thing of the past.
It is certainly the case that a lot of Catholics are for tighter gun-control laws.
However, the Church also doesn’t officially denounce the private ownership of guns.
In contrast, the right to bear arms isn’t a right that the Catholic Church officially recognizes.
To clarify, the Church doesn’t have an official position either way on gun ownership.
Therefore, I will make a case for private ownership of guns, based on what we do have available.
That is, I will use facts, statistics, the Bible, Saints, and the Magisterium to make an argument for private gun ownership.
Facts On Guns
Gunfacts.info is a great website that shows the actual facts, studies and statistics regarding guns.
I won’t go through everything in this article, but I will include facts that dispel the biggest myths.
Myth: “Assault Weapons” (Which Are Actually Not A Thing) Are a Serious Problem
Fact: In 1994, before the Federal “assault weapons ban,” you were eleven (11) times more likely to be beaten to death than to be killed by an “assault weapon.” 3
Fact: In the first 7 years since the ban was lifted, murders declined 43%, violent crime 43%, rapes 27% and robberies 49%. 4
Fact: Nationally, “assault weapons” were used in 1.4% of crimes involving firearms and 0.25% of all violent crime before the enactment of any national or state “assault weapons” ban. In many major urban areas (San Antonio, Mobile, Nashville, etc.) and some entire states (Maryland, New Jersey, etc.) the rate is less than 0.1%. 5
Fact: Even weapons misclassified as “assault weapons” (common in the former Federal and California “assault weapons” confiscations) are used in less than 1% of all homicides. 6
Fact: Police reports show that “assault weapons” are a non-problem:
-Between 1980 and 1994, only 2% of confiscated guns were “assault weapons.” 8
-Fewer than 2% of criminals that commit violent crimes used “assault weapons.” 9
Fact: Only 1.4% of recovered crime weapons are models covered under the 1994 “assault weapons” ban. 10
Fact: Most “assault weapons” have no more firepower or killing capacity than the average hunting rifle and “play a small role in overall violent crime.” 12
Fact: Even the government agrees. “… the weapons banned by this legislation [1994 Federal Assault Weapons ban – since repealed] were used only rarely in gun crimes … There has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence, based on indicators like the percentage of gun crimes resulting in death or the share of gunfire incidents resulting in injury.” 13
Gun Facts – Assault Weapons
Myth: The Availability of Guns Causes Crime
Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen (though suicide rates did start to rise during the Great Recession). 1 As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America.
Fact: Internationally speaking “There’s no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence.” 2
Fact: When homicide modes (weapon type) are charted against gun ownership rates and total homicide rates, homicides rise as per capita gun ownership rates decline.
Fact: “A detailed study of the major surveys completed in the past 20 years or more provides no evidence of any relationship between the total number of legally held firearms in society and the rate of armed crime. Nor is there a relationship between the severity of controls imposed in various countries or the mass of bureaucracy involved with many control systems with the apparent ease of access to firearms by criminals and terrorists. 3
Fact: Handgun ownership among groups normally associated with higher violent crime (young males, blacks, low income, inner city, etc.) is at or below national averages. 4
Fact: Among inmates who used a firearm in the commission of a crime, the most significant correlations occurred when the inmates’ parents abused drugs (27.5%) and when inmates had friends engaged in illegal activities (32.5% for robberies, 24.3% for drug trafficking). 5
Fact: Five out of six gun-possessing felons obtained handguns from the secondary market and by theft, and “[the] criminal handgun market is overwhelmingly dominated by informal transactions and theft as mechanisms of supply.” 6
Fact: The majority of handguns in the possession of criminals are stolen, and not necessarily by the criminals in question. 7 In fact, over 100,000 firearms are stolen in burglaries every year, and most of them likely enter the criminal market (i.e., are sold or traded to criminals). 8
Fact: In 1968, the U.K. passed laws that reduced the number of licensed firearm owners, and thus reduced firearm availability. U.K. homicide rates have steadily risen since then. 9 Ironically, firearm use in crimes has doubled in the decade after the U.K. banned handguns. 10
Fact: Most violent crime is caused by a small minority of repeat offenders. One California study found that 3.8% of a group of males born in 1956 were responsible for 55.5% of all serious felonies. 11 75-80% of murder arrestees have prior arrests for a violent (including non-fatal) felony or burglary. On average, they have about four felony arrests and one felony conviction.
Fact: Half of all murders are committed by people on “conditional release” (i.e., parole or probation). 12 81% of all homicide defendants had an arrest record, 67% had a felony arrest record, 70% had a conviction record, and 54% had a felony conviction. 13
Fact: Per capita firearm ownership rates have risen steadily since 1959 while crime rates have gone up and down depending on economics, drug trafficking innovations, and “get tough” crime legislation. 14
Gun Facts – Availability of Guns
On Crime and Guns
Myth: Gun violence is widespread in America
Fact: Misuse of guns is highly centralized in major metro areas, within poor neighborhoods (typically street gang infested) and thus highly among young black males.
Myth: Criminals buy guns at gun stores and gun shows
Fact: Less than 1% of crime guns are acquired at gun shows, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. 5
Fact: In total, about 10-11% of crime guns come from retail sources 6, where background checks are conducted. About 2.3% of guns used in violent crime come from retail sources. 7
Fact: Only 7.3% of traced guns were recovered from the individual who first bought the gun. 8
Fact: One study 9of adult offenders living in Chicago or nearby determined that criminals obtain most of their guns through their social network and personal connections. Rarely is the proximate source either direct purchase from a gun store, or even theft. This agrees with other, broader studies of incarcerated felons.
Fact: Another city-wide study, 10 this one in Pittsburgh, showed that 80% of people illegally carrying guns were prohibited from possessing guns, and that a minimum of 30% of the guns were stolen.
Fact: Other common arrangements include sharing guns and holding guns for others. 11
Gun Facts – Crime and Guns
Private Ownership Of Guns Doesn’t Prevent Crime
Fact: Every year, people in the United States use guns to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times – more than 6,500 people a day, or once every 13 seconds. 1 Of these instances, 15.7% of the people using firearms defensively stated that they “almost certainly” saved their lives by doing so.
Fact: Even the government’s estimate, which has a major methodology problem, 2 estimates people defend themselves 235,700 times each year with guns. 3
Fact: The number of times per year an American uses a firearm to deter a home invasion alone is 498,000. 4
Fact: In 83.5% (2,087,500) of these successful gun defenses, the attacker either threatened or used force first, proving that guns are very well suited for self-defense. 5
Fact: The rate of defensive gun use (DGU) is six times that of criminal gun use. 6
Fact: Of the 2,500,000 times citizens use guns to defend themselves, 92% merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. 7
Fact: In most of the remaining 8% of defensive gun uses, a citizen never wounds his or her attacker (they fire warning shots), and in less than one in a thousand instances is the attacker killed. 8
Fact: 41% of justifiable homicides using a gun were by private citizens, the others by law enforcement. 9
Fact: In one local review of firearm homicide, more than 12% were civilian legal defensive homicides. 10
Fact: For every accidental death (802), suicide (16,869) or homicide (11,348) 11 with a firearm (29,019), 13 lives (390,000) 12 are preserved through defensive use.
Fact: When using guns in self-defense, 91.1% of the time, not a single shot is fired. 13
Fact: After the implementation of Canada’s 1977 gun controls prohibiting handgun possession for protection, the “breaking and entering” crime rate rose 25%, surpassing the American rate. 14
Gun Facts – Guns And Crime Prevention
Catholics Using Guns For Self-Defense
The Catholic Church may not have an official ruling on gun ownership, but it does have official teachings on self-defense.
Bible Passages On Self-Defense
The Bible doesn’t talk about guns, but it does have passage that refer to self-defense:
If a thief be found breaking open a house or undermining it, and be wounded so as to die: he that slew him shall not be guilty of blood.
Exodus 22:2
Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.
Psalms 143:1 (Psalm 144:1 New Translations)
A just man falling down before the wicked, is as a fountain troubled with the foot, and a corrupted spring.
Proverbs 25:26
When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth.
Luke 11:21
But they said: Nothing. Then said he unto them: But now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip; and he that hath not, let him sell his coat, and buy a sword.
Luke 22:36
St Thomas Aquinas on Killing in Self-Defense
As it turns out, Catholics have always held that killing in self-defense is just.
In Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas writes that:
Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Now moral acts take their species according to what is intended, and not according to what is beside the intention, since this is accidental as explained above. Accordingly the act of self-defense may have two effects, one is the saving of one’s life, the other is the slaying of the aggressor. Therefore this act, since one’s intention is to save one’s own life, is not unlawful, seeing that it is natural to everything to keep itself in “being,” as far as possible.
ST II-II, q. 64, a. 7
As you can see here, the Angelic Doctor of the Catholic Church is decidedly on the side that killing in self-defense is justified if one is trying to kill you.
Of course, the intent is not that you kill your aggressor, but that you save your own life.
This is the key distinction.
If one kills another in response to a slap in the face, a punch to the gut, or vulgar insults, then we would say that killing a person is not permitted as self-defense.
The Catholic Magisterium on Killing in Self-Defense
What does the magisterium of the Catholic Church say regarding self-defense?
Firstly, according to the Catechism of the Council of Trent, written in AD 1566:
If a man kill another in self-defence, having used every means consistent with his own safety to avoid the infliction of death, he evidently does not violate this Commandment.
Catechism of the Council of Trent III, §§ 327-332.
Secondly, The Douay Catechism of 1649 says:
Q. Is it not lawful to kill in any cause?
A. Yes, in a just war, or when public justice requires it: “For the magistrate beareth not the sword without cause.” Rom. i. 4. As also in the blameless defence of our own, or our innocent neighbour’s life, against an unjust invader.
The Douay Catechism of 1649 by Henry Tuberville, D.D.
Thirdly, the Baltimore Catechism, written in the late 19th century, states:
Q. 1276. Under what circumstances may human life be lawfully taken?
A. Human life may be lawfully taken:
1. In self-defense, when we are unjustly attacked and have no other means of saving our own lives;
Baltimore Catechism
Fourthly, in the Catechism of St. Pius X written in 1908, Pope St. Pius X writes:
3 Q. Are there cases in which it is lawful to kill?
A. It is lawful to kill when fighting in a just war; when carrying out by order of the Supreme Authority a sentence of death in punishment of a crime; and, finally, in cases of necessary and lawful defence of one’s own life against an unjust aggressor.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In addition to these sources, there are many more sources out there, including quotes from Saints, Popes, encyclicals, and catechisms that essentially say the same thing.
Patron Saint of Guns – St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
The Catholic Church has a canonized Saint who used guns in an heroic way.
The story of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows is as follows:
After freeing a young woman from would-be rapists, St. Gabriel Possenti confronted the onrushing brigands waving revolvers. At that moment, Possenti fired at a lizard that happened to be running across the road and dispatched it with one shot. Thus having demonstrated his excellent handgun marksmanship, he was able to take command of the situation and ran the now-frightened brigands out of town.
St. Gabriel Possenti performed this feat of courage without causing physical harm to a single human being.
Christian News Wire – Gun Saint Society Commemorates February 27 Possenti Feast Day
As you can see, St. Gabriel was a Saint that used guns to specifically defend his community from ruffians.
Had St. Gabriel not had private ownership of guns, nor knew how to use them, he would not be able to defend his community.
Of course, we also have many Saints who were soldiers.
For instance, St. Joan of Arc, under divine guidance, lead the French army against the English attempt to conquer France.
Moreover, many Saints, like Sts. Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola were soldiers before devoting their lives to spiritual warfare.
So in conclusion, I hope this article convinced you that Catholics (and anyone else) should be for the private ownership of guns.