Just thought I would share this letter wrote I wrote to my local Catholic newspaper. They recently printed an anti-2A gun article which I am responding to. Not all Catholics are anti-gun, nor is it official policy of the church. Unfortunately, as in many other newspapers, this one just happens to be Catholic, people are hijacking the media to use it to support their cause.
Any comments on my letter are welcome. Thanks
THE SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTS THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Dear NWI Catholic Editor,
I was very disappointed to see the article entitled "End sought to easy access to high-power weapons" printed on the front page of the January 27, 2013 issue of NWI Catholic.
I am a devout pro-life Catholic, a parishioner of St Thomas More in Munster, and a member of Opus Dei. During President Obama’s first term, I was deeply offended by the imposition of the HHS Mandate that would force all employers, including Catholic employers to provide insurance coverage for abortions, sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacient drugs. As many other Catholics, I have put a great deal of energy into writing letters to our elected officials and attending Religious Freedom Rallies, to express concern and outrage at this unjust law, even to the point of telling our politicians, in the words of Cardinal Francis George, that “we will not, we cannot comply with this unjust law”. Cardinal George described the law as an unjust intrusion into the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
We have a president who on several occasions has outright lied to the American people regarding his intentions for Obamacare and its impact on Catholics. Obama is a socialist president with a socialist agenda, who holds the United States Constitution in utter contempt and disrespect. As Catholics, we are painfully aware of the injustice that Obama represents.
And now this same president, who would strip Americans of their First Amendment rights, in similar fashion to his first term is using lies and misinformation to attack the Second Amendment freedoms of Americans.
It is tragic that evil people are capable of such horrific crimes as those seen at Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine. But we cannot confront evil in our world by putting our heads in the sand and pretending that evil does not exist, and blame these tragedies on law abiding people or their guns. Punishing law abiding citizens who had nothing to do with these tragedies will do absolutely nothing to stop similar evils from occurring in the future.
As Catholics, how can we condone the infringement of the Second Amendment rights of Americans, when our First Amendment rights are under such unprecedented attack by a government that embraces socialism more openly with each passing day? How can we be so blind as to trust the same administration that attacks the rights of Catholics to pass laws that are fair to any other American? Has this administration done anything to defend life? Has this administration done anything to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, something the president has taken a sworn oath to do? If not, then exactly what is their agenda? This administration is so obsessed with abortion and contraception, that it ignores its real duties as a government. So obsessed, that Ambassador Stevens was knowingly abandoned and allowed to die with other Americans at Ben Ghazi. This administration has an agenda that cares nothing about children. If it did, they would not be such avid proponents of abortion. Their agenda is to dismantle the United States Constitution using fear and lies to incite support, and I will have no part of it. I will not be stripped of my God-given heritage as an American, nor allow my posterity to be stripped of theirs.
I do not agree that limitations on magazine capacities and modern sporting rifles for law-abiding citizens will reduce crime whatsoever. The title of your article addresses easy access to high-power weapons, but the article discusses assault weapons and magazines. High power weapons and assault rifles are not the same thing! This is very poor reporting by someone who obviously knows nothing about weapons. The term “assault rifle” is in fact a misnomer, and in reality refers to fully automatic weapons that are not available to the average American. Weapons currently being targeted by proposed bans are not “assault rifles”, they are only semi-automatic rifles that have the same look as an assault rifle, but are in essence very different. The term “assault rifle” is therefore in itself a lie, but we as Catholics are committed to truth!! We should not allow ourselves to be caught up in such fear-driven propaganda tactics. The article quotes Sister Carol Keehan as saying assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have no valid uses off the battlefield. With all due respect to Sister Carol, the semi-automatic rifles referred to by Sister Carol are indeed used commonly off the battlefield by law enforcement and citizens for self-defense. Law enforcement officers face threats that are no different than threats faced by any other American, which is painfully obvious at tragedies such as Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine, where there were no police or armed citizens there to defend our children. Those weapons are also used in sport shooting competitions, and contrary to the misinformation and lies, they are also used for hunting.
Regardless, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, it is there to protect Americans from tyrannical governments and criminals, it is there for self-defense. These weapons exist in our modern world and that is not going to change. In our modern world, law abiding citizens should not be any less armed than criminals are, or for that matter, any less armed than police are. The Second Amendment is there to ensure the natural right of a human being to defend himself, his family, his loved ones, and other innocent people from tyrannical governments and criminals. In our day, we as Americans are faced with both of these evils in our own land, right now. This is not the time to abdicate our Second Amendment rights.
As a Catholic, I will not obey any law that infringes on my First Amendment rights. As an American, I will not obey any law that infringes on my Second Amendment rights. I do not trust this administration with any legislation whatsoever that limits the constitutional freedom of Americans, as is clearly their agenda. These types of laws will do nothing to protect our children, and will only create an environment in which criminals are given more freedom to inflict harm on innocent, and if the government has their way, dis-armed people.
I pray that your newspaper will not jump on the misinformation bandwagon being perpetrated against the American people by a deceptive, dishonest, and divisive administration that has only divided our country. Supporters of the First and Second Amendments are currently under attack by that same administration. Therefore, we share a great deal in common. As a supporter of both causes, I see that connection very clearly. These two groups of people can only be more successful in their efforts if they recognize the common source of the attacks on their freedom and support each other. But if we only stand for our own concern (the First Amendment) while attacking the other (the Second Amendment), we only shoot ourselves in the foot and support the very administration that is attacking us. Together, we can do a great deal to defeat the Obama administration’s attacks on our American heritage, our freedom.
And he said to them,"When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, `And he was reckoned with transgressors'; for what is written about me has its fulfillment." And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them,"It is enough." Luke 22:35-38
Respectfully yours,
Any comments on my letter are welcome. Thanks
THE SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTS THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Dear NWI Catholic Editor,
I was very disappointed to see the article entitled "End sought to easy access to high-power weapons" printed on the front page of the January 27, 2013 issue of NWI Catholic.
I am a devout pro-life Catholic, a parishioner of St Thomas More in Munster, and a member of Opus Dei. During President Obama’s first term, I was deeply offended by the imposition of the HHS Mandate that would force all employers, including Catholic employers to provide insurance coverage for abortions, sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacient drugs. As many other Catholics, I have put a great deal of energy into writing letters to our elected officials and attending Religious Freedom Rallies, to express concern and outrage at this unjust law, even to the point of telling our politicians, in the words of Cardinal Francis George, that “we will not, we cannot comply with this unjust law”. Cardinal George described the law as an unjust intrusion into the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
We have a president who on several occasions has outright lied to the American people regarding his intentions for Obamacare and its impact on Catholics. Obama is a socialist president with a socialist agenda, who holds the United States Constitution in utter contempt and disrespect. As Catholics, we are painfully aware of the injustice that Obama represents.
And now this same president, who would strip Americans of their First Amendment rights, in similar fashion to his first term is using lies and misinformation to attack the Second Amendment freedoms of Americans.
It is tragic that evil people are capable of such horrific crimes as those seen at Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine. But we cannot confront evil in our world by putting our heads in the sand and pretending that evil does not exist, and blame these tragedies on law abiding people or their guns. Punishing law abiding citizens who had nothing to do with these tragedies will do absolutely nothing to stop similar evils from occurring in the future.
As Catholics, how can we condone the infringement of the Second Amendment rights of Americans, when our First Amendment rights are under such unprecedented attack by a government that embraces socialism more openly with each passing day? How can we be so blind as to trust the same administration that attacks the rights of Catholics to pass laws that are fair to any other American? Has this administration done anything to defend life? Has this administration done anything to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, something the president has taken a sworn oath to do? If not, then exactly what is their agenda? This administration is so obsessed with abortion and contraception, that it ignores its real duties as a government. So obsessed, that Ambassador Stevens was knowingly abandoned and allowed to die with other Americans at Ben Ghazi. This administration has an agenda that cares nothing about children. If it did, they would not be such avid proponents of abortion. Their agenda is to dismantle the United States Constitution using fear and lies to incite support, and I will have no part of it. I will not be stripped of my God-given heritage as an American, nor allow my posterity to be stripped of theirs.
I do not agree that limitations on magazine capacities and modern sporting rifles for law-abiding citizens will reduce crime whatsoever. The title of your article addresses easy access to high-power weapons, but the article discusses assault weapons and magazines. High power weapons and assault rifles are not the same thing! This is very poor reporting by someone who obviously knows nothing about weapons. The term “assault rifle” is in fact a misnomer, and in reality refers to fully automatic weapons that are not available to the average American. Weapons currently being targeted by proposed bans are not “assault rifles”, they are only semi-automatic rifles that have the same look as an assault rifle, but are in essence very different. The term “assault rifle” is therefore in itself a lie, but we as Catholics are committed to truth!! We should not allow ourselves to be caught up in such fear-driven propaganda tactics. The article quotes Sister Carol Keehan as saying assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have no valid uses off the battlefield. With all due respect to Sister Carol, the semi-automatic rifles referred to by Sister Carol are indeed used commonly off the battlefield by law enforcement and citizens for self-defense. Law enforcement officers face threats that are no different than threats faced by any other American, which is painfully obvious at tragedies such as Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine, where there were no police or armed citizens there to defend our children. Those weapons are also used in sport shooting competitions, and contrary to the misinformation and lies, they are also used for hunting.
Regardless, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, it is there to protect Americans from tyrannical governments and criminals, it is there for self-defense. These weapons exist in our modern world and that is not going to change. In our modern world, law abiding citizens should not be any less armed than criminals are, or for that matter, any less armed than police are. The Second Amendment is there to ensure the natural right of a human being to defend himself, his family, his loved ones, and other innocent people from tyrannical governments and criminals. In our day, we as Americans are faced with both of these evils in our own land, right now. This is not the time to abdicate our Second Amendment rights.
As a Catholic, I will not obey any law that infringes on my First Amendment rights. As an American, I will not obey any law that infringes on my Second Amendment rights. I do not trust this administration with any legislation whatsoever that limits the constitutional freedom of Americans, as is clearly their agenda. These types of laws will do nothing to protect our children, and will only create an environment in which criminals are given more freedom to inflict harm on innocent, and if the government has their way, dis-armed people.
I pray that your newspaper will not jump on the misinformation bandwagon being perpetrated against the American people by a deceptive, dishonest, and divisive administration that has only divided our country. Supporters of the First and Second Amendments are currently under attack by that same administration. Therefore, we share a great deal in common. As a supporter of both causes, I see that connection very clearly. These two groups of people can only be more successful in their efforts if they recognize the common source of the attacks on their freedom and support each other. But if we only stand for our own concern (the First Amendment) while attacking the other (the Second Amendment), we only shoot ourselves in the foot and support the very administration that is attacking us. Together, we can do a great deal to defeat the Obama administration’s attacks on our American heritage, our freedom.
And he said to them,"When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, `And he was reckoned with transgressors'; for what is written about me has its fulfillment." And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them,"It is enough." Luke 22:35-38
Respectfully yours,
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Rep inbound for the awesome letter. Now here's hoping that they have the integrity to publish it.
