One week in April 2023 has gone down as a horrifying rejection of the sanctity of life in an Easter season dedicated to proclaiming the gift of Easter light and life. A teen shot after ringing the wrong doorbell. A young cheerleader shot for getting into the wrong car. A 20-year-old woman shot and killed after pulling in the wrong driveway. A young girl and her dad shot for retrieving their lost ball from a neighbour's garden. The number of mass shootings in the United States on Saturday 15th April was higher than on any other day so far in 2023, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that tracks US gun-related violence. Across six US states, in the one day, ten people were murdered by lone gunmen.

Defenders of the US Second Amendment, that guarantees the constitution right to 'bear arms', argue that these shooters are mentally disturbed. True or not, the fact that these 'mentally disturbed' people have, it seems, unrestricted access to assault rifles capable of ripping through bodies is morally ambiguous at best. Due to the powerful gun lobby that makes millions of dollars for uncaring shareholders, and politicians who feel unable or unwilling to put in some form of sensible gun control, hundreds die needlessly every year. The mere mention of trying to adopt some measure of control sends the powerful right-wing of US politics into apoplectic rage. They wear their Christian faith, politics, and their patriotism as badges of honour. For them, Jesus is a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed man who would be more at home in Wyoming than Palestine.

It is these same politicians who rage against abortion, claiming that they support life. I say 'claim' because it seems that their outrage only applies to life before birth. Blatant disregard for social security, medical care, support for refugees, the rights of minorities, and their chosen impotence in the gun debate, all seem to say that many of these 'Christian' politicians have no regard for life after birth. If we support the notion of sanctity of life, as we must, then it applies from conception to natural death. Life is sacred before and after birth—no politician has the right to promote a gun culture of death that destroys communities.

Uvalde, a small town in Southern Texas, has gone down in history as the place where an 18-year-old white male murdered 21 small children and teachers in a primary school. The reaction of the right-wing 'Right to Life' politicians was to arm teachers! When a teenager survivor of the Parkland massacre went to Washington DC to plead for some measure of gun control, we saw a leading Congresswoman hounding him down the street, spewing all kinds of vitriol against him. This leading 'right to life' politician actually chased a teenager down a Washington street because he had the temerity to ask why his friends were murdered in such an horrific way. It is interesting to note that the same congresswoman presented herself as the 'victim' when reporters followed her to her office, questioning her policies: it is rather pathetic to see that she cannot practice what she preaches!

The reaction of the Uvalde bishop, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Sillar was certainly counter-cultural: the nation must overhaul its gun laws, limiting access to weapons designed to maximize carnage and suffering, he said. It must also abandon what he described as an unsettling cultural embrace of violence these weapons represented. He argues that the US Constitution have made guns an untouchable 'idol'—and, as we are well aware, idolatry is a sin!

We cannot condemn abortion with one breath, and then refuse to control the evil that can so easily take life away. Fox 'News' may well have been handed down an eye watering fine of millions of dollars for their part in promoting the lie that Mr Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election, but it represents only 4% of their annual income. Truth, it seems, can be sold off to the highest bidder as we have seen no sign of an apology from those who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection. Tucker Carlson, the darling news commentator of the right wing, saw the riot that led to death and damage as simply a group of well-behaved citizens visiting congress. We saw with our own eyes, through video reporting, police bodycams and CCT, the mayhem caused—truth cannot now become yet another victim of these propagandists, who seem ready to push their cause in whatever way they want.

This sad week in April has seen people turn on their fellow human beings, using guns and bullets to express their fear. A teenager, trying to pick up his younger siblings from a party, should not end up fighting for his life in the Emergency Room because he knocked on the wrong door. A young woman's life should not be violently cut short because she drove into the wrong driveway. What are these perpetrators afraid of? Do they buy into the lie that is peddled every single day, on certain news channels that unless we have more powerful and stronger weapons, then the bad guy wins? On this side of the Atlantic, we must be wary of language used, by politicians and media, to describe asylum seekers, for example. Indeed, we have to be concerned about any harmful and hateful rhetoric that can be used as an excuse to promote violence, as we saw recently outside a hotel in Kirkby, where asylum seekers were being housed due to delays in the processing of their legal application. If we are not careful, we can instil a climate of fear and hatred of 'the other' that cannot be fixed by a one-way ticket to Rwanda. This sad week in April must cause us to stop and think.

Time and time again, especially after mass shootings, we see these politicians and TV pundits wringing their hands offering their 'prayers and thoughts'! My prayer today is that these powerful men and women use their prayer time to stop and pause. That they use their prayer time to question why innocent children are lying in morgues across America, their bodies defiled and opened up by assault rifles? I pray that they use their prayer time to use their obvious intelligence to have a sense of historical perspective: did their Founding Fathers believe that, in modern America, it is legitimate to own such evil weapons of mass destruction? Can they use their prayer time to really pray for life—from conception to natural death? I pray that the energy that they rightly put into promoting life before birth is equally used to affirm the value of all life, regardless of colour or creed, after birth.

Catholic leadership must be heard above the pleas of the gun lobby, the 'National Rifle Association' politicians and influential media outlets. Life, at all levels, is sacred and must be protected. Right wing Catholics can argue that gun ownership is a fundamental human right, according to the Constitution. However, as we see so often, while people peddle their 'rights', they are not so keen to promote the responsibilities that come with every right. We are slowly emerging from a global pandemic that tested both our rights and our need to promote a common good. In these recent years we have seen, in the USA, what unfettered access to guns can bring. In pushing an agenda of fear or hate, we witness an epidemic of violence that has to stop. When I lived in Chicago some years ago, I vividly remember the first time I awoke, hearing gunfire from an adjoining neighbourhood: I still recoil in horror as I realise that someone lost their life that night. I remember walking with the local Catholic leader, Cardinal Cupich on a March to protest gun violence. Critics of my point of view will cite the strict gun laws that exist in Illinois—however, anyone can go the next state and buy their weapons of choice. They can go to 'Gun Fairs' that resemble a local car boot sale and take their pick of instruments of death. I still find it hard to go into a local supermarket, in many US states, and see guns and bullets on sale near the salad bar and drinks aisle. In the US, you cannot legally buy an alcoholic drink until you are 21, yet an 18-year-old in Southern Texas could freely buy weapons that he used to take children's lives and destroy a community.

In all the prayers and thoughts of the pro-gun lobby, it is my wish that they would heed the plea of Cardinal Cupich and live as people who truly believe in the sanctity of life. In this time of Easter, we have to stand up and affirm our faith:

The size of the crisis, and its sheer horror make it all too easy to toss up one's hands and declare 'nothing can be done.' But that is the counsel of despair, and we are a people of hope.

Author: Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash