Prayers - Guns

GUNS AND THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

Dear God of Peace,

The United States Constitution
gives citizens the "right to bear arms."

In 2012, six teachers and twenty children were gunned down at the Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut. A member of the National Rifle Association theorized afterward that had one of the teachers been armed, fewer deaths might have occurred, as deranged 20-year-old killer Adam Lanza was firing off 90 rounds of ammunition with his mother's automatic rifle.

This conjures the spectacle of teachers,
men and women, among them nuns, priests
and Christian Brothers, with pistols
on their hips, and - if one is to fight fire power with fire power - automatic rifles
on their shoulders with up to 100 rounds
of ammunition loaded and ready to fire.

As You know, Lord, the average worldwide gun ownership is ten weapons per 100 people.
In the U.S. it is 90 weapons per 100 people.

In the U.S. 4.5 million guns are bought
each year. At "gun shows," weapons can be purchased without background checks
by felons and the mentally disturbed.

Some 8,000 people are killed by gunfire
in the U.S. each year.

Please, God, give our legislatures
the backbone to fight the gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association,
to turn back the tide of this appalling slaughter.

Fortify lawmakers whose political contributions come from the NRA
to do the right thing.

I pray, Lord God of Peace, for every person who has been killed by gunfire
since the first weapon was invented.

Let enlightened populations and people find civil ways to resolve disputes,
and to formulate surefire ways to keep weapons out of the hands of the young
and the mentally unstable.

All this I pray, Lord God of Love,

Amen

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