ARLINGTON, Va., June 22 /Christian Wire Service/ — As the Nation’s Roman Catholic bishops concluded their biannual meeting in Chicago this past weekend, a gathering of lay Catholic firearm rights enthusiasts celebrated Father’s Day with a shooting tournament in suburban Washington, D.C., John Michael Snyder, Founder/Chairman of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc., noted here today.
Snyder joined John Aquilino and Chris Carroll, founders of the Catholic Sportsmen’s Organization (CSO), and over 50 competitors for the 6th Annual Father’s Day Classic Sporting Clays Tournament at the Prince George’s County Trap and Skeet Center in Glenn Dale, Maryland for the CSO-sponsored event. All proceeds from the event are used to benefit local youth organizations.
The international St. Gabriel Possenti Society (www.gunsaint.com) is named for St. Gabriel Possenti, a seminarian who rescued villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy from a gang of terrorists in 1860 with a striking, one-shot, lizard-slaying demonstration of handgun marksmanship. Possenti died in 1862. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. Snyder seeks Possenti’s official Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners. He is the author of a book, GUN SAINT, a biography of Possenti published by Telum Associates, LLC that details the history of the Gun Saint movement.
The interdenominational St. Gabriel Possenti Society underscores the historical, philosophical and theological bases for the doctrine of legitimate self-defense. [Source]
5 comments
As Friend A (British) said to friend B-C (USA), when the latter explained earnestly and with great force that it is important to have guns so that one can protect one’s family should the government turn on you, “Yes, but B-C, they have helicopters and nuclear bombs . . .”
I remember when my father and Mr. Aquilino first started the Catholic Sportsmen’s Organization over 6 years ago. Since that time, the CSO has raised over $40,000 and donated it to local youth programs like CYO, Boys and Girls Club, Scouts, etc.
As long as I have breath in me I will back the right to bare arms. There is nothing like the sound of a shotgun being cocked in the still of the night to put the fear of God in those who have just unlawfully entered your home or property. Usually that’s all that is needed. No gun fire. No confrontation. Just the sound of a cocked shotgun. I pray we never loose this right to bare arms in this country.
Clothed arms are not enough, then? 🙂
When I was 3 yrs old, my mother was being stalked. That term wasn’t in use then but that is what was happening. She regulary received anonymous phone calls threatening her life and mine. She had been a hunter as a young woman and knew how to handle a gun. My father (who worked nights)bought her a handgun (I’m not certain of the caliber) and she got a license. That loaded gun was under her pillow while she slept. One night I saw her take that gun and walk into the living room. I followed her. There at the window was a man who was attempting to enter our home. My mother took that gun from behind her back and pointed it at him. He ran like a scared rabbit. When the police arrived, they found that he had been at every door and window trying to break in. The phone calls stopped. Whenever I hear people objecting to using a gun for self defense, what I hear is them telling me that my mother and I should have died that night. That my younger sisters, our children and grandchildren should not have been born. That the life of a man who sought to kill a woman and a child was more valuable that the life of that woman and her child. I understand the preferential option for the poor. I don’t understand the preferential option for violent criminals.