Well folks, have we got some news today. Let’s just get this out there: whether someone owns a gun or not is their personal business, and that’s how it should stay. What grinds gears is when people try to force their own decisions or morality onto others, especially when it comes to firearms.
Greg Erlandson, the former president and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service, went all-in on the morality debate of gun ownership in his latest piece. Using cherry-picked examples, Erlandson paints gun owners as trigger-happy monsters living out their nightmares in real life.
He starts with two cases: Susan Lorincz, who shot through her door during a dispute, and Jason Lewis, who confronted car thieves and killed a 13-year-old. Both tragic situations, no doubt, but hardly representative of the millions of law-abiding gun owners across the country who have never used their firearms for anything but self-defense—or haven’t had to use them at all.
Of course, Erlandson conveniently ignores the countless cases where guns have saved lives. He doesn’t mention the people who defended themselves, their families, or their property when law enforcement was minutes away but danger was seconds from their doorstep. Instead, he frames gun ownership as some sort of moral failing, suggesting that we’ve become “monsters in our own nightmares” and that owning a gun only makes us more insecure.
Then comes the real kicker: he argues that without guns, people like Lorincz and Lewis would have just called the police, and those tragedies could have been avoided. If only it were that simple, right? But anyone who’s been in a life-threatening situation knows that sometimes you don’t have time to wait for the cops. Sure, if someone’s smashing up your car, call 911. But when someone’s trying to break into your home? Are we really supposed to just hope that the police arrive before it’s too late?
Erlandson’s argument falls apart when you look at the bigger picture. Gun ownership has been on the rise for decades, and guess what? The homicide rate has actually decreased over that time. So much for the idea that more guns equal more death. The reality is that law-abiding citizens with firearms aren’t the problem. People like Lorincz and Lewis are outliers, not the norm.
Let’s not pretend that the moral high ground here belongs to those who refuse to defend themselves. There’s nothing moral about being a victim. There’s no honor in lying dead because you decided not to protect yourself or your family. Sure, taking a life unnecessarily is immoral, but defending yourself when someone threatens your life? That’s about as moral as it gets.
Illegal Aliens Crime Stats reported last year.
33,000 Assaults
1,700 Homicides
3,000 Robberies
4300 Sex Crimes
6,900 Burglaries
7,500 Weapons Charges
Credit: @JackPosobiec pic.twitter.com/ivEJzKrnW1— Big Fish (@BigFish3000) April 2, 2024
Erlandson cherry-picks a couple of tragic stories to push his point, but he completely ignores the many, many cases where armed citizens successfully defended themselves. The police can’t always be there in time to save you, and when seconds count, you don’t have the luxury of waiting around for backup.
So no, owning a gun isn’t immoral. What’s immoral is expecting people to lie down and be victims. The right to protect yourself, your home, and your family is as moral as it gets.
