The shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27 prompted an all-too-familiar response. Rather than focusing on the death of the two students—eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and ten-year-old Harper Moyski—most of the coverage of the tragedy has been centered on the gender identity and political motivations of the shooter, a twenty-three-year-old trans woman, or the political efficacy of offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims. It’s become increasingly clear that we lack the moral language to have an honest conversation about guns and the culture of violence we all have to endure, regardless of one’s stance on the Second Amendment.
In the United States today, firearms kill more children than cancer, car crashes, and every other cause. Tragically, the two children killed last week in Minneapolis won’t be the only ones killed this year by guns. And, as we brace for the next school shooting, Catholics, like all Americans, have to reckon with the country’s growing indifference to these repeated and completely avoidable acts of violence.
Read Full Article »