I was interviewed this morning on Spirit Radio in Ireland about the most recent school shooting in the United States. Yesterday, August 28th, a shooter sprayed bullets into the church at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, killing two children (ages 8 and 10) and injuring 17 others (14 children and 3 elderly adults) during the first Mass of the new school year. My family experienced a similar nightmare almost three years ago when a shooter, armed with an assault rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition, killed two persons (a student and a teacher) and wounded several others at my older daughter’s school in St. Louis. My Irish friends, students, and fellow Catholics with whom I discuss gun violence in the US say they just cannot understand why so many Americans, including those who claim to be Christians, have guns.
As a former law enforcement officer, I have owned a firearm, including for a time afterwards. But I still think that gun violence in the US is a moral problem. The Annunciation, from the Gospel of Luke 1:26-28, has the angel Gabriel reassure Mary, saying “The Lord is with you.” One of the things that the shooter at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis is said to have written beforehand was “Where is your God?” As a theologian and as a Christian, I want to believe Gabriel got it right. I hope so. But these days it ain’t easy.
Although I had written a little about guns and gun violence prior to that terrible day at my daughter’s school, I have felt compelled to write more about this moral issue ever since. I also welcome the attention that several other theological ethicists have been devoting to this problem in recent years. I am not going to rehearse the facts and dispel the misconceptions in this present post. Instead, for those who are concerned and interested, I am going to share some links to my articles on the subject.
I also invite other moral theologians to tackle this issue. I am pleased that the board of the College Theology Society issued a statement on gun violence on June 1, 2023, and that the Catholic Theological Society of America has a three-year interest group focused on “Gun Cultures and Gun Violence.”
In 2023 the Journal of Moral Theology devoted a special issue to the topic of “Guns in the United States,” which includes articles by a number of Christian theologians and ethicists (some who contribute to this site: Connor Kelly and Luis Vera, ), as well as a response from myself to them. The special issue was edited by Michael R. Grigoni and Cory D. Mitchell, and the articles are accessible for free.
My most recent academic book chapter was first presented at the annual meeting of the College Theology Society in June 2024 at Regis University in Denver: “Gun Violence, Vulnerability, and Flourishing,” in Vulnerability and Flourishing, College Theology Society Annual Vol. 70, edited by Cristina Lledo Gomez and John Sheveland (Orbis Books, 2025) 84-100. This essay contains references to the very small but growing number of articles addressing gun violence. If you are interested in this article, please email me (tobias.winright@spcm.ie).
In addition, I wrote “School shootings – slaughter of the innocents” for The Tablet on January 2, 2025. There is a paywall, but registration allows for access to a few free articles per month. Earlier I authored “What does Catholic teaching say about using guns for self defense” in the National Catholic Reporter on August 2, 2023, and “A parent’s worst nightmare: An active shooter at my daughter’s school” in the National Catholic Reporter on November 2, 2022. An earlier attempt was “What St. John XXIII Has to Say about Gun Rights” in America on February 23, 2018, which was based on a post I did here at Catholic Moral Theology in 2013.
Todd David Whitmore (who was my PhD dissertation supervisor) and I noted the problem of school shootings during the 1990s in our essay, “Children: An Undeveloped Theme in Catholic Teaching,” in The Challenge of Global Stewardship: Roman Catholic Responses, eds. Maura A. Ryan and Todd David Whitmore (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), 161-185. Among the few theological ethicists who have addressed gun violence are: William P. George, “Guns and the Catholic Conscience,” Chicago Studies 35, no. 1 (April 1996): 82-95; Richard C. Sparks, C.S.P., Contemporary Christian Morality: Real Questions, Candid Responses (New York: Crossroad, 1996), 136-137; William C. French, “In Harm’s Way in America: Gun Violence and Religious Ethics,” Shalom Papers: A Journal of Theology and Public Policy 2, no. 3 (2000): 39-73; and Patrick T. McCormick, “Weapons of self-destruction,” U.S. Catholic 74, no. 1 (January 2009): 42-43. If you can find any of these, I highly recommend them. Sadly, they are still very relevant.
More recently, Rebecca Bratten Weiss wrote an excellent, accessible piece, “Can gun ownership be ethical? Should Catholics be willing to give up their guns?” for U.S. Catholic on June 25, 2024. Colleagues here at Catholic Moral Theology have also published pieces on the topic: Tom Bushlack, “Guns, God, and Rights” (December 20, 2012); David Cloutier, “The Children of God: The Catholic Response to Gun Violence” (May 1, 2018); David Cloutier, “A March for Peaceableness” (March 24, 2018); Christiana Zenner, “Liberty, Idolatry, and the Culture of Violence” (April 21, 2013); and Jason King, “What I Wish the NRA Had Said” (December 24, 2012).
Finally, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, where I used to belong, has a task force on gun violence with helpful resources and suggestions for Catholics and parishes.
Thanks Tobias,
That’s a nice intervention and overview of the literature.
Here is a different angle on the problem that I just posted on my substack. It is a quick intervention by someone who hasn’t read all the literature you list, so I’m curious as to where any who have focused more on the problem might disagree.
https://betterpolitics.substack.com/p/a-catholic-response-to-the-gun-pandemic
If you have any thoughts on it, please LMK.
Bill
Bill, Thanks for your comment and especially for your own “intervention.” I think what you are suggesting is situated in the background of some of what I have written. If you read my chapter in the CTS annual volume, I rely on James Gustafson’s four modes of moral discourse to offer a friendly critique of some other ethicists’ writings on this problem, many of which stay in the prophetic mode that tends to draw — I think in an oversimplified way — on Scripture. In my view, moral theology should employ as many modes of discourse to reach as many audiences as possible. In addition to the prophetic mode, we should avail ourselves of the narrative, the ethical, and the policy modes. Lisa Sowle Cahill has added a fifth, called participatory, which is more grassroots, which I see as connecting with what some call advocacy now. Of course, some of us ethicists may be better at one or two modes than others. Perhaps nobody can be skilled with all of these modes equally. But, in the end, like you, I am pessimistic about the future there in the US — and that future does not bode well for the epidemic of gun violence there. The ethical and the policy modes of moral discourse no longer have a receptive audience in government. Thanks again.