The Sisters of Bon Secours are launching a citywide campaign against gun violence with seven other Catholic congregations in Baltimore,” Catholic News Agency reported Thursday. “The advertisement campaign announced this week features ads inside and outside of city buses and in subway transit stations throughout the city that say “Put the Guns Down. Let Peace Begin With Us.”
That’s meaningless “feel-good” jabber centered around the false premise pejorative “gun violence,” calculated to shift responsibility away from the twisted human operator.
Predators, both private and tyrannical state actors, have no intention of putting down the tools that enable them to dominate and victimize the defenseless. And as for the overwhelmingly peaceable population of gun owners, their being armed deters the violence the sisters are wringing their hands over.
Just as, at the individual level, a criminal avoids a potential victim who may be armed, so too does this work on a societal scale. Or at the Vatican, where the Swiss Guard deploys with “Sig-Sauer, Heckler & Koch, Steyr Mannlicher, and Glock semi-automatic handguns, personal defense weapons, assault rifles, and submachine guns.”
As for the information campaign, aside from wondering who’s paying for the city transport ads, which isn’t made clear (hopefully, no church/state complications will arise), how do the sisters hope to translate a naïve slogan into meaningful and transformative action?
“The advertisements feature a QR code that takes viewers to the sisters’ webpage, which has resources on combating gun violence, including a prayer for victims of gun violence and links to the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s gun buyback program,” the CNS report noted.
That’s fine, prayer is what nuns do, although it’s surprising that people being encouraged to do so via messages posted on city property has not raised the ire of the same atheists who furiously object to manger scenes in public parks at Christmas.
We know “gun buybacks” are every bit as ineffective as hoping to change predatory exploitation of the weak with billboards and bus ads. As the DOJ’s National Institute of Justice concluded years ago in its “Summary of Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies”:
“Evidence: Gun buybacks are ineffective as generally implemented. 1. The buybacks are too small to have an impact. 2. The guns turned in are at low risk of ever being used in a crime. 3. Replacement guns are easily acquired. Unless these three points are overcome, a gun buyback cannot be effective.”
Besides, how are the people likely to be induced to turn in their guns (certainly not the ones causing all the violence) supposed to transport them to the “buyback”? Carry them “illegally” on the bus? And we’re sure they know the Rules of Gun Safety, and how to make sure they’re cleared, or will this further endanger the public? Who taught them, the nuns?
But aside from praying, urging the untrained to handle and transport guns to “buybacks” and sharing the campaign on social media, there’s one other action item the nuns are calling for: “Change the Culture: Advocacy and Education.”
Advocacy for what?
Tell Congress to oppose unregulated concealed weapons. The House Judiciary Committee recently advanced a dangerous bill that would allow nearly anyone to carry a concealed and loaded gun, regardless of state and local laws. H.R.38 and S.65 would enact “constitutional” carry, also known as permitless carry, meaning that individuals do not have to undergo a background check, licensing, or training before carrying a concealed weapon.
So… lobby for national infringements…? That will only affect the “law-abiding”, since nothing in those bills would authorize criminals committing acts of armed violence to carry guns…?
Curious thing that, with the sisters begging for donations by declaring “As a 501(c)3 organization, all donations to BSVM are tax-deductible.”
IRS Exemption requirements say “To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization… may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities…”
I guess this is where you say “define ‘substantial’.” Since we don’t know how much money is involved to encourage people to lobby Congress to codify nationwide citizen disarmament, an interpretation would appear to be subjective.
Radical anti-gun “faith leaders” have been getting away with it for years while Godless leftists have been demanding that the IRS revoke tax exemptions from “conservative” evangelists over simple pronouncements from the pulpit.
It’s not out of line to wonder who’s paying for all this and why. And if a “conservative” church that values the right of the people to keep and bear arms could get the same deal from municipal governments and the IRS…
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
