As lawmakers in Illinois consider several bills designed to curb the gun violence that continues to plague Chicago and the nation, Cardinal Blase Cupich visited the state’s capital on Wednesday to urge the legislature to listen to the voices of young people crying out for action.
“The youth of our nation are shaming the adult world into action,” Cardinal Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, told reporters, throwing his voice behind survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 dead. In recent weeks, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have appeared in the media pressing for tighter gun control laws and are planning a march in Washington, D.C., in March.
“Their voices are a wakeup call that should have been heard years ago,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal Cupich: “The youth of our nation are shaming the adult world into action.”
Invoking Pope Francis, who called arms sellers “merchants of death,” the cardinal said, “We should not be naïve about the role of money in our national epidemic of gun violence. Arms dealers are driven by profits.”
“But profits are never more important than people, and we must never allow the desire for money to eclipse our most sacred duty to keep our children safe,” he continued. “When even small measures to limit access to items such as armor-piercing bullets, bump stocks and high-volume magazines are opposed, we must ask those who oppose them: Whom are you protecting?”
The number of shootings and gun-related deaths in Chicago remains high, even if data suggest the epidemic is lessening. In 2017, 650 people were murdered in the city, down from 771 the previous year, CNN reported in January. Nearly 3,500 people were injured by guns in 2017. Two months into 2018, gun violence appears to be falling again, but The Chicago Tribune reported that nearly 300 people have already been shot and more than 60 have been murdered.
“We must never allow the desire for money to eclipse our most sacred duty to keep our children safe.”
The cardinal, who last year implemented a policy banning guns from all archdiocesan property, recalled his meetings with the families of victims of gun violence in Chicago.
“The carnage we saw in Florida happens nearly every day throughout our state and our nation. I say this as one who has prayed with family members of children lost to gun violence, trying my best to offer God’s love and healing,” he said. He added, “In the name of those murdered children, [elected officials] must begin the process of walking away from the moral compromises that doom our society to inaction.”
The cardinal laid out several measures to confront gun violence that he supports, including rigorous screening for those seeking gun licenses, increased funding for studies related to gun violence and better access to mental health. He also said lawmakers can “make sure that all students have access to a solid education and that workers receive a fair wage that lifts families out of the cycle of poverty and despair that perpetuates the cycle of violence.”
“The time for words is over, our children are telling us. What is now required is action.”
On Tuesday, the state’s Judiciary-Criminal Committee approved five gun control measures including barring anyone younger than 21 from buying an assault-style weapon, prohibiting the purchase of large-capacity ammunition feeders and outlawing civilian use of body armor. The measures are tailored to address recent shootings in Florida and one in Chicago that took the life of an off-duty police officer.
One bill, named the “Commander Paul Bauer Act,” would ban the sale of some high-capacity magazines as well as some kinds of personal body armor. Chicago’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, was in Springfield on Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass the bill. He told WLS-TV that the cardinal has been a key partner in the city’s efforts to curb gun violence.
“The cardinal has been great. We have a great relationship since I became superintendent. We have constant dialogue, and he wants to see this city safer,” he said.
In his remarks Wednesday, Cardinal Cupich also highlighted the threat faced by police from military-style assault weapons in the hands of civilians, saying he stands “in solidarity with those charged with protecting us.”
“Their right to return home safely each day to their families includes the reasonable expectation that those who would harm society are not armed with weapons designed for the battlefield and bullets designed to kill police officers,” he said.
Representatives of the Illinois State Rifle Association and the Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois opposed the measures, calling them incomplete and poorly drafted. They said they were a constitutional overreach in some cases.
Political leaders, the cardinal said, “can stop saying that they will pray for victims and uphold family values if that is the only response they care to give to these tragedies.”
“The time for words is over, our children are telling us,” he said. “What is now required is action.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Is this the 13th or 14th article on this topic all one sided. The bishops are politicizing the Church. It will not end well if it continues.
What the bishops/cardinals and the authors here won't tell you is all these student protests are being organized by the Democratic Party and are not spontaneous.
No, the bishops aren't politicizing the Church--you would like to wish morality out of politics.
You haven't a clue what I believe. Maybe I want real morality and not posturing.
Guns are not the real problem in Chicago. Removing them from the gangs if possible will solve very little. I don't object to trying but what gun control initiative will do that. Certainly not background checks or restrictions on rifle sales or magazine size or body armor.
The cardinal dare not address the real problems. What we need is religious leaders who will come to grips with the real problems but they are cowered because they have become political and will not address anything that goes against their political views.
Its the guns Cosgrove; its the guns. Weapons of war have no place in civil society. Children are being murdered. Forget the prayers. We need legislators with brains, morals and balls.
I said it before on a thread of another article on this subject here at America: for him and his ilk it's all about obfuscation, creating straw men and "slippery slope" logical fallacies. He knows full well that the restrictions he mocks would save SOME kids lives. (We opponents of the NRA's line don't say that those restrictions would ameliorate the cultural depravity that provides the root cause--just that some kids' lives will be saved by limiting the number of rounds that can be fired at one time.) His callousness about those "some kids' lives," marks him down as the ruthless idealogue and the callous person that he is.
Several logical fallacies in your statement. The first and obvious is the ad hominem. There is no straw man. So you are actually committing the "straw man fallacy." Then you are arguing by assertion which is another fallacy. That is three in just one sentence.
Actually I want to save lives and make them more fruitful. But how is protecting them not doing so. And how is pointing out that what the cardinal is recommending is irrelevant and will do little if anything to help the lives of young people.. The issues in Chicago and what happened in Florida are world's apart. Conflating them is some kind of fallacy.
There actually is one thing in common between Chicago and Parkland. That is the perpetrators are fatherless boys. But that is worse than a "third rail" for liberals. You won't hear that addressed here or by the cardinal or by the people shouting for more gun control.
Another thing in common between Chicago and Broward County is the electorate. Google election results in Broward county and they will look very much like those found in Chicago. Elections have consequences so I suppose the electorate should look inward to the policies they espouse.
It has nothing to do with guns. It is all about political power and coming elections. And it is not about saving kid's lives.
You might want to ask how this kid made it through the background check to start.
The Democrats had the chance to change gun control laws in 2010 and had no interest. The answer, it is all about elections.
Dom, my man......hahahahaha. Wake up, wake up. Snap out of it!
Plumbing solutions do not address moral nihilism, and pretending it does exacerbates the problem. Those who claim "It's the guns. It's the guns," have blood on their hands by diverting attention from the real problem. Would that politicians discover the moral evil of public education, and fatherless families, and abortion. It just won't happen, and lib Catholics won't let them.
People who advocate gun control wish to keep morality out of politics. Plumbing solutions to moral problems divert attention from the moral nihilism that advocating plumbing solutions to moral problems helps to create.
I’m not sure that the bishops have shown enough courage to stand up against the devil NRA. It’s time for the Church to show some leadership and role model to young people who are increasingly disillusioned with the Church after so many scandals. If it fails to do so, it will not end well…
The NRA is not fighting for the second amendment or for responsible gun owners. The NRA is a LOBBY FOR THE GUN MANUFACTURERS and their clients want to sell high ticket-price, high margin assault weapons. So they twist the minds of Americans and corrupt the political system to conflate responsible gun ownership with a free-for-all of unchecked violence.
"The NRA is a LOBBY FOR THE GUN MANUFACTURERS" - Thank you. I don't understand why people don't get this. The only thing the NRA does is continually sell fear to people so they will buy more guns.
Another ABSURD INSANITY about guns in America – “How Defective Guns Became the Only Product That Can’t Be Recalled: Taurus sold almost a million handguns that can potentially fire without anyone pulling the trigger. The government won’t fix the problem. The NRA is silent”. The NRA is now the Overlord of American politics and society. Only the young can change that, hopefully, after they have seen wave and wave of mass killings against their peers…
Bishops, please listen to them, don’t let them down!
A clarification: The guns SHOULD be recalled because the built in safeties do not function and the guns are thus dangerous but they DO NOT just go boom. ....And Cardinal Cupich simply cannot help himself, yet again. Rightfully crying tears over gun violence then sneaking funding for education into the mix and, for good measure, adding in the receiving of a fair wage .(determined how exactly? Come on, let's hear it if you are calling for it (* sound of crickets chirping*)) When Jesus saw the people in hunger he fed them. He didn't sit back after telling the disciples to fix the problem for Him. Come on, Cardinal, what do you have in mind??
From Crisis Magazine Nov. 3, 2017 by Regis Nicoll : "According to liberation theology, the bible reveals God not as Savior of the world, but as the Liberator of the oppressed. He’s the God who takes the side of the poor and calls for their relief through corporate action. Instead of giving people their just due, justice, in the liberal understanding, is giving people what they need from the civitas under compulsion of the state." This is why I believe Francis and Cardinal Cupich are being far less than honest in their motivation. Christ may have stated that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) but the Francisian/ Cupichian kingdom definitely is. And yet this attempt is through implementation of undefined and fuzzy thinking and for good reason as the elimination of the the God of our forefathers by His replacement with an earthly and communistic god would invoke immediate pushback. The word for the day is "wily". ( Or "kumbaya" equating with "Blandly pious and naively optimistic" (ref: Urban Dictionary.)) And, as always, be very much afraid of those who desire such a level of worldly power for it almost never comes to a good and Christian end.
As an English man I don't quite understand where you're going with this CHRISTOPHER ! ?
But both Pope Francis & Cardinal Cupich are abundantly clear .
Why, you've screamed my name at me!! Only my late Mother could do that!... I am very concerned over some church leaders who appear to be heck bent on imposing their wills on every secular issue, and secular issues primarily, while using their perceived level of Sacred authority to broke little if any dissent When John Kennedy was elected President of this country almost 60 years ago there was a bigoted concern over the possibility of Catholics owing allegiance first to Pope and then to country. This never came to pass. I am greatly concerned that current church leadership would demand and is demanding this allegiance as a matter of course. (Note the current flap over Raymond Arroyo and the lack of ANY Christian heart or mercy or love by church leaders and the demand for blind obedience under pain of banishment (but one heck of a lot of sin by these same leaders.)). Perhaps part of the problem is cultural. In the USA one can just as readily disagree and protest against the President as one may disagree with the Pope because the opposition is not to the office but to the man and his politics. I do not oppose the Pope but I readily oppose the man named Bergoglio and many of his secular beliefs. Part of the problem rests in this current Pope and his Jesuit training under which there is NEVER allowed dissent but is ONLY blind obedience. He simply cannot conceive of another possibility. It is said the church is not a democracy but neither is it a dictatorship. And Cardinal Cupich should know better. I would submit the possibility of the clarity you mention as being in grave error. I submit the proposition that platitudes are not clarity. Catholic teaching is the search for Truth and not for power and certainly not as a political agenda.
Christopher--write less, say more brother. Children are being murdered by weapons of war which have no place in civil society. What do you think the cause of gun violence is? I think the cause is both the super abundance of guns and the NRA which has becoming a driver of propaganda claiming that the need for military weapons is created by a government of tyranny which is going to destroy the Constitution and privilege racial minorities and women over white men. The NRA and far right conservatives are selling the idea that you can be a hero if you carry gun. That's all it takes. There are fearful men, concerned about societal change that seems to be leaving them behind and some of them pick up their knock-off assault rifle and decide to go down in a burst of gunfire, carnage, death and take innocent people with them. It's not mental illness. It's the end result of a relentless propaganda campaign slandering our country, it's diversity and its Constitution. If you don't watch the NRA channel (NRATV), Give it a try. It's like listening to Lenin give speeches before the Revolution.
Denis--I'm an American and I don't understand either. The NRA teaches people to talk and think in peculiar ways.
Father George Rutler is quite amusing in commenting about the "clarity" of Cupich: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/clarity-cardinal-cupich
Don't you understand that you are a Protestant--one who believes in "salvation by faith alone," and who, with Luther, mocks the "Letter of St. James," wherein it is written that faith without ACTS of love is like a "sounding bell"? We Catholics believe, with Jesus, in extending the "Kingdom" to this world, and ATTEMPTING to "spread" the "Kingdom" out before us (paraphrasing Christ, who said "the Kingdom of God is spread out before you.)
Blase Cupich, however courageous, us only one episcopal voice on this issue, When is the NCCB going to grow some stones and make a church wide denunciation of these weapons of mass destruction? They don't even consider it to be a right to life issue. They are too busy refusing Holy Communion to politicians who don't endorse their fundamentalist views on abortion. Receiving communion should never be used a bludgeon for those who follow their consciences, Paprocki, Burke and other bishops are off base. The assumption is that they reflect the official voice of the NCCB. And this will not "end well." These powerful guns are a moral as well as a political issue
I don't listen to Cardinal Cupich on anything.
If it is true that you don't listen to Cardinal Cupich on anything, you are dismissing one of the more practical and moderate voices in the church hierarchy.
Lisa, your post is humorous b
In the interests of my salvation, I'll continue to ignore Cardinal Cupich.
I find the articles regarding gun and gun rights on this web is naive at the least, including those who write, are interviewed for such articles and who are respondents of said articles; also are derelict of responsibility for responsible for said discourse of this subject matter. When someone violates the law by killing persons they and no one else is responsible for their actions. It is not the implement used in the commission of the crime. It is the person who pulled the trigger. Why is it always the gun at fault? Those who do find fault with this inanimate object are themselves delusional and should be examined themselves. I find the “young” to be the dumbest group of kids today; and not on this subject only. Naive....delusional and anything like said words are most apt for these kids who possess no rationale for what emanates from their mouths. I am not speaking solely from this article. I’d be wishing to suggest these kids would grow up, but bless them, they just wouldn’t know how to start.
Phil--Here's who's to blame: The people who push the guns as a badge of manhood or heroic stature, the arms manufacturers who sell military weapons to anyone, the NRA that propagandizes like a bunch of brown shirts calling out liberals, teachers, persons anything other than white and male, anti-feminist ranters, refugee bashing couch potatoes, people who think open carry is just a cosplay, and more than a few who think the South is really going to rise again this time, so you better have a gun and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. As for the "kids" they will, indeed grow up and hopefully forgive their parent's generation for it's stupidity on guns and how many children it allowed to be murdered before they did anything. In the meantime, I give them credit for being smarter, more virtuous and having far greater courage than their elected officials. Not to mention their president. No, I mean it. He's not worth mentioning.
Dominic......You’ve proved my point.
Not so much. Dominic refuted your point. There's a fair difference. Perhaps a Jesuit education would benefit you.
Apparently from your statement, a Jesuit education would in effect provide a “re-education” view of the truth. Didn’t the Russians and don’t the Chinese exercise such programs? ( As an aside, I do enjoy the names of contributors on this site. ) Really, if this is representative of the Jesuits.....No thank you. I’d rather think for myself. The prevailing conditions of this countrys’ educational system is predominantly of the liberal/progressive (I.e. Marxist and Alinsky) philosophy. It will eventually be removed. Those who subscribe to it will, well........will be replaced. The Church must represent the ideological part of this Christian world. However, it’s to be reminded that the Church has been wayward before because of mans’ influence. I love the Catholic Church; but I refuse to blindly follow the assertions of men which conflict with the tenants of a Capitalist society which has provided not only the riches attendant to it but more importantly the freedoms it affords an individual. You see, every form of government ( I.e. Liberalism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, Progressiveism) provides, with the exception of one of these, the requirement of some government control. The only one lone philosophy which relies solely upon the deeds of the individual is Capitalism. This, I know will be distasteful to many here, but more than any, Capitalism has been the major support of the Catholic Church.
"Apparently from your statement, a Jesuit education would in effect provide a “re-education” view of the truth" - Red herring and straw man logical fallacy. Which you would understand if you had a Jesuit education. Which provides you with a firm basis for exegesis and assessing the truth. But hey -- Keep pushing your bizarre far-right wing conspiracy theories and right-wing politics that are deeply incompatible with the Catholic Church.
Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Chicago also ranks among the highest in the nation in gun crime.
Contrast that with Texas, Alaska, Australia and other free carry states and countries. Free carry equals low gun crime. Strict gun control laws do not relieve mental and emotional illness. But when sane people are required to be vetted and allowed to carry, the mentally and emotionally ill, know it. Whether or not a person actually carries is a free will and religious matter.
We took prayer out of school. Let's politic to put it and religion clubs in schools. We are trying to cure mental and emotional illness with gun control laws. Let's fix the vetting system instead. And get help for those who fail.
FYI Australia banned semi-automatic weapons some years ago after a similar incident. The Prime Minister was speaking about the efficacy of the ban some days ago on television.
"Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Chicago also ranks among the highest in the nation in gun crime." -- Correlation is not causation. One of the first bits of logic you learn (especially if you have a Jesuit education). Unfortunately we can't understand the root causes of gun violence in America because the NRA has systematically bought out US Senators and Representatives to specifically pass a law forbidding the CDC from examining the root causes of gun violence. What is it the NRA is afraid of, do you think? I think most of us know.
"We took prayer out of school. Let's politic to put it and religion clubs in schools." - Yes. Because God kept pedophiles out of the churches, right?
"We are trying to cure mental and emotional illness with gun control laws." - Most of us are just trying to prevent more dead children with reasonable gun laws.
Murph,
You are delusional. Your arguments fail in substance whichever you wish to focus. You would be better served if you kept your statements to yourself. You, from other posts, seem to rely (hinge) upon Jesuit education for your rationale upon varied subjects as being the sole authority of any position to not be questioned. Might I urge you to refrain from such reference in the future in order to improve your objectivity in any subject matter. It would behoove you to do so. Your Jesuit only education is a tale-tell example of a person possessing limited intellect when one depends upon solely one “school of thought.” If this is all you have to offer then maybe you should refrain from future comment.
Dionys:
I agree with you that correlation is not causation.
Why have gun control if gun control does not reduce gun crime?
Guns have no purpose except to kill. Assault rifles were designed to kill people and they are very effective. Assault rifles have no civilian purpose and they should not be legal for civilians to own.
As a nation, we can reduce deaths due to guns, but we have politicians taking money from pro-gun groups and the NRA spending millions to elect people who will refuse to put any controls on guns. So far, citizens have not had the will to control guns, but I expect that to change.
I expect the men in the church hierarchy to speak out about the immorality inherent in our failure to control guns. And I wish them success in persuading people to be more politically active in the matter.
Medical professionals have recently contrasted the nature of the wounds inflicted by semi-automatic weapons with those inflicted by rifles and shotguns and most pistols. The bullets fired by the semi-automatics literally EXPLODE organs, leaving almost no chance of survival, whereas the wounds inflicted by the other guns are more discrete and may be repaired: further indication that the weapons we NRA opponents wish to ban are WEAPONS OF WAR, not hunting devices or instruments of domestic protection.
Robert:
This is such a good point that you make.
It takes a great deal of skill, knowledge and practice to kill a rattlesnake mid-strike with a rifle. Shotguns, make it more likely that one firing under pressure will hit the snake before it hits it's target.
I would like to see the discussion shift to one of "gun" vs "weapon of war."
In one year, childhood fatalities in motor vehicle accidents exceed the CUMULATIVE deaths of children from gun violence in schools since Sandy Hook. Ergo hoc,propter hoc we should ban motor vehicles?
Violent video games de-sensitize children and adults to the normal empathetic response toward death and suffering. We should ban violent video games.
The way the conversation is going will ensure that NO significant legislation will be passed. The CNN organized town hall meeting was an embarrassing spectacle. The arguments put forth were full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Truly embarrassing. Democrats have controlled congress a couple of times in the last 25 years and no significant legislation was passed. In fact Democratic icons like Sen Harry Reid didn't pursue gun legislation with the conviction it deserved. In my opinion, in order to accomplish something in this field first be honest. Second be knowledgeable. Third stop the appeal to feelings and emotions. You instantly lose 50% of your audience with emotional outbursts. Treat the subject with the cold-blooded manner which it deserves to be treated and you will persuade more people than screaming insults like the CNN town hall meeting. Fourth, media stop exploiting grieving parents and shocked children. The media is using a group of youngsters to parse their talking points. Shame on them. Now if you DON'T want any significant gun legislation passed, keep insulting, screaming, and yelling in front of a camera. Cardinal Cupich should have said a few words about that.
Children are naive and idealistic, God bless them. The Cardinal should stay out of politics and focus on morality and saving souls.
The US was founded by God-fearing individuals who freed themselves from tyranny using ... wait for it ... guns. They wrote into the document that formed the foundation of government the right to bear arms - the most powerful arms, equal to the military's at the time - as the second listed right of the people to be free from government. (Most children are, sadly, so poorly educated as not to know this basic fact, but I digress)
The writers/editors of the Bible created a brilliant guide for defense against the Devil. The writers/editors of the Constitution created a brilliant guide for defense against the government oppression. Both documents are under attack, and the Cardinal is best suited for protecting the former.
I could buy a tank and have it parked in my yard, ready to defend myself and others from a government that decides to imprison me. No school children would be at risk from it.
"The cardinal, who last year implemented a policy banning guns from all archdiocesan property, "
That should do it, creating another "gun free" zone will certainly reduce gun violence. And then the mayor can declare the 'killing fields" of Chicago as "gun free' zones so the honest people will turn in their legal guns.
Yes guns don't kill people, people kill people" is the most important statement made but the proposed solution to enact more laws banning or restricting gun ownership ignores the "people" part of the equation.For all those ban guns advocates did the banning of and criminalizing of alcohol under Federal Law stop the consumption of alcoholic beverages or did it give rise to bootleggers, illegal stills, crime bosses of all backgrounds, gang wars, needless deaths, hijackers, speakeasies and complete disrespect for the law ? Did banning of and criminalizing drugs end drug usage or did it give rise to vicious drug gangs, gang wars, needless deaths, money laundering and other illegal activities. History and past experiences show that banning or limiting gun ownership would only effect honest, law abiding citizens ability to protect themselves from gun possessing criminals or turn them into criminals as they keep their own illegal weapons.
Serial killers are not a recent development. In 1949 Howard Unruh walked down a city block in Camden NJ with a handgun and killed 13 people,men, women and children. That should be sufficient for the gun control fanatics to call for a complete ban on hand guns. Enacting a ban on one type of firearm is the start down the slippery slope to a ban on all firearms.
It seems that there is very little thought is given to the fact that cities with the strictest gun control laws, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, et al, that keep the average, honest, everyday citizen disarmed have the highest number of gun related crimes and murders as petty and hard core criminals have no qualms about acquiring and using guns in criminal activities and to settle scores. If every home,apartment,mall, school and mom&pop store had a sign in the window, "This residence, school, place of business or worship is protected by an armed, licensed weapons expert. All are welcome and all are warned" there might be less gun violence.
Cardinal Cupich, there is a reason why teenagers are not allowed to vote. Since when do the elders of a community take a seat to the "wisdom" of youth? God bless these idealistic, naive, and emotional youth for their zeal. In the meantime, Cardinal, why don't you address the violence being perpetrated on the black and Hispanic youth of your own archdiocese? Liberal Chicago is hardly a sterling example of enlightenment. Get off the bandwagon and start smelling like your sheep, Cardinal Cupich.
This was written after the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown.
It was relevant then and I believe it is relevant now.
* * * * * * *
The tragedy of Newtown, CT. last week has raised a number of issues. Not surprisingly, many (most) employees of the company I work for are gun enthusiasts, and in spite of the killing of all those innocents, seem to be more concerned with their right to bear arms as of primary importance. I disagree. When this company was founded it was for the outdoorsman, the hunters, the fishermen, the campers. They weren't founded to arm an insurrectionist minority of paranoids.
Most of those expressing an opinion, at least in my department, have found it unfortunate that those children were killed, but the real tragedy is that company stock went down a couple of dollars. Most of those expressing an opinion have maintained that the kinds of guns now being discussed as being regulated - assault weapons, semi-automatic, large magazines of ammunition, etc. - are in fact sporting guns, like hunting rifles and shotguns. If this is considered a sporting firearm, what is the sport? The only thing I can think of is the hunting of first graders. And speaking of which, what's the bag limit on six-year olds, or does it vary from state to state?
The only others who would value these types of weapons in spite of the human cost of life are those who need a weapon like this to prove their manhood, to prove to themselves and to their peers that they are real men. There are also those who fear that those military personnel who roam the Panhandle inspecting the missile silos will show up in their front yards in the middle of the night, surrounding their houses and calling on them and their families to come out of their homes with hands raised. If their justification for the second amendment is to defend oneself from an oppressive government, then they must already be planning an insurrection.
The company I work for has just expressed one of the most hypocritical corporate positions I've ever seen. They have opted to stop selling these weapons in one of their stores (coincidentally the one closest to where the incident took place). They have lowered the flags at their company's corporate headquarters to half staff out of respect for the victims of the shooting and then sold guns and ammunition in every other store as fast as the employees could pull them off the shelves. The fact that they are making a lot of money doing this does not honor the victims of Newtown, nor does it make a moral case for what the company stands for. It has been my hope for the past eleven years that I have worked here that the company was founded on a moral foundation as well as a financial one. If they need the sale of these types of weapons to stay profitable, we are in trouble as a corporation.
The people in my department have been trying to make a defense of what is ultimately a morally indefensible position. They blame Obama and the Democrats for what they see as an infringement on their rights as gun owners, without accepting the responsibility for the availability of assault weapons to people who have neither the conscience, the intelligence nor the sanity to handle them. They say that new legislation to try to control the sale and ownership of guns will not keep individuals with a twisted motive from committing the crimes the legislation tries to prevent. That's no excuse. There have been laws, rules in our civilization since Mount Sinai, hell even back to Eden. It has never prevented men from committing sin, and it never will. Such is the character of humanity. That is no excuse for having no rules at all. If the legislation to regulate guns prevents even a single killing at the expense of the inconvenience of a few, it will be worth it. If there were any moral justification for these weapons outside of the armed forces, I might feel differently. There isn't, and I don't.
If having these opinions means I wasn't born to work here, then damned right I wasn't. If that isn't what it means, let's see us have the moral certainty to sacrifice a few dollars in profit by taking the higher road and removing these weapons from their inventory. Then perhaps I was born to work here.
The following statistics "In 2017, 650 people were murdered in the city(Chicago), down from 771 the previous year, CNN reported in January, nearly 3,500 people were injured by guns in 2017" do not mention the type of weapon AR-15 or similar, handgun, rifle, shotgun, or other used in these shooting incidents.
The probability is high that not one of those killed or wounded resulted from someone armed with an AR-15 or similar with high capacity magazines. "Haste makes Waste" is still a Truth,especially when the driving forces are American History challenged teenagers supported and/or funded by liberal progressive political and anti-gun organizations, teacher's unions, Hollywood stars and the media.
Free access to small arms is another method our capitalist overlords use to handle the peasantry. To some extent, the peasantry know they've lost political and economic power and this can be offset by giving them small arms toys to let them feel they have power again. Meanwhile, the beat goes on. Oh, yes. Someday, somehow, someway, we'll stop watching TV, ordering crap from Amazon, get our lardasses out of our couches and overthrow the gummint with our popguns when it gets out of our control. Well, it already is. It's owned by the concentrations of money, pretty much lock, stock and barrel. And you don't need guns to overthrow it. You only need to recognize it and take to the streets, not in violence, but in numbers. The cops will provide the violence until they realize they're being used, too.
More shallow thought from a morally shallow Cardinal. It is obvious that a moral evil is caused by moral evil and just as obvious that those who have made it their life's work to avoid serious moral thought, like Cardinal Cupich, need to take refuge in plumbing solutions to moral problems. Just as they advocate condoms for promiscuity, they obsess over gun control when culturally based moral nihilism claims the minds of those demented enough to act out their rage by mass murder. Although, perhaps, a Cardinal who trivializes the crushing of baby skulls on a monumental scale would be best to not comment on anything at all with a moral dimension.
My younger brother killed the rattlesnake with a shotgun, while he was on a horse.
Perhaps thinking of needing guns around snakes dates to Original Sin. it would be an awesome act of Faith to call upon my Guardian Angel to be the One to stop an attacking rattlesnake.
Then I would really be living my Baptism!
So a man walks into a convenience store, takes out his ax or machete and demands money. The clerk is either killed because "no witnesses", or said no, or because the killer just wanted to. And if the clerk had a machete as well, now here comes the battle.... just like many African battle.