The Call To Do Something About Gun Violence Prevention

~ We live in a violent world. Human history is littered with injury and death caused by war and murder. Here in modern America, we have an epidemic of gun violence that is devastating communities throughout our great country.

The Living Justice Ministries’ Gun Sense: For the Common Good is dedicated to quelling this mighty storm of gun violence through prayer and action.  It is easy to get numb among the seemingly endless news reports of mass shootings.  I gravitated towards this committee in the wake of the deadly and terrifying school shooting at the CVPA/CSMB high school a scant couple of miles from our parish church and my own home. The physical proximity and knowing that a couple of our own young parishioners experienced this terror urged me to Do Something.

As Catholics and Christians, our missions begin with prayer.  On the first weekend of every month, we hold a prayer service following all weekend Masses to honor those who were killed by gun violence in our own metropolitan area during the preceding month and remember the loved ones who suffer from unnecessary loss.  We read each victim’s name (if available) and age. This litany can be overwhelming but communal prayer can open our hearts to God’s strength for this battle.  We invite any and all to join us in prayer.

But prayer needs to be fortified with action.  We believe there is room for limitations in the constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms, including (but not limited to) solid background checks for all firearm sales, limits on ammunition, and a total ban of unnecessary and especially deadly automatic and semi-automatic weapons.  Gun violence is often the subject of the Living Justice weekly advocacy letters available after every weekend Mass.  Our local and national elected officials need to know the importance of this issue, so we urge all parishioners to visit our Advocacy table to help us spread the word as we try to turn these particular swords into ploughshares.

Earlier this year, several committee members and allies spent a day in Jefferson City to speak directly with our senators and representatives on the importance of gun violence prevention.  We hope to do similar direct action going forward.

We have also instituted the Be SMART program in our parish school, a tool to bring gun safety awareness to our school children and their families.  The program has had an extraordinarily positive response.  We will continue to highlight this program and be an example for the Archdiocese and our community as we strive to protect our citizens from the dangers of gun proliferation.

During the Summer months, this column will be highlighting the good work and parishioners involved in one of our various Social Justice Ministries.  Each week, we will feature an article from a different ministry, written by one if its members, as a reflection on the calling to Catholic Social Teaching at St. Margaret of Scotland.