American bishops have welcomed President Barack Obama’s executive action on gun control, introducing a range of measures to regulate the sale of firearms.
Miami’s Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said in a statement that “For a long time now, the bishops of the United States have called for reasonable policies to help reduce gun violence,” continuing that “while no measure can eliminate all acts of violence which involve firearms, we welcome reasonable efforts aimed at saving lives and making communities safer.”
The bishops hope that Congress “take up this issue in a more robust way, considering all of the varied aspects involved”, Dr Wenski said, calling for social services to be strengthened for those who suffer from mental illness.
In his personal blog, Dallas’ Bishop Kevin Farrell attributed angry congressional reactions to the President to the legislative chamber having “unabashedly sold itself to the gun lobby”.
Praising the President’s action, he wrote, “thank God there is someone who finally has the courage to fill the gaps in our shameful laws on gun control in order to reduce the number of massacres, murders and suicides that have become a plague in our country”.
Sr Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice advocacy group NETWORK, praised the president’s announcement, saying “it is urgently needed that we take a step beyond lamentation toward action to effectively prevent further killing”.
According to a 2013 poll by the Religion News Service and the Public Religion Research Institute, about 62% of US Catholics favour stricter gun control. That year saw more than 33,000 people killed by firearms in the US.