Gun control as a religious issue

Of all the controversies that have followed in the bloody wake of the July 20 shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado, few have provided such clarifying insight into the moral tensions and contradictions in American culture as the argument over whether gun control is a religious issue.

James Martin, an author and Jesuit priest, was among the first to set out the terms of the debate when he penned a column for America magazine arguing that gun control “is as much of a ‘life issue’ or a ‘pro-life issue’ . . . as is abortion, euthanasia or the death penalty (all of which I am against), and programs that provide the poor with the same access to basic human needs as the wealthy.”

Martin’s central point was that abortion opponents spare no effort to try to shut down abortion clinics or to change laws to limit or ban abortions, so clearly believers should be committed to taking practical steps to restrict access to guns.