Catholic World News News Feature

Gun lobbyist rips Vatican stance at UN August 12, 2005

An American expert on gun laws has sharply criticized the Vatican's representative at the UN, saying that by endorsing an international gun-control scheme. Archbishop Celestino Migliore cooperated in "a direct attack on the God-given right of law-abiding citizens to self-defense."

John Michael Snyder, a veteran gun lobbyist, took issue with Archbishop Migliore for his statements in support of the proposed UN Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. That program, he noted, would entail worldwide gun control under UN auspices, denying private citizens the right to own firearms without explicit government approval. The program, Snyder observed, would violate the rights of American citizens to bear firearms, as guaranteed by the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution.

Snyder argued that petty criminals and powerful tyrants alike prey on individuals who cannot defend themselves. “When push comes to shove,” he said, “the ability of an individual to defend life from terrorist and other violent criminal action depends on whether or not that individual can get and use guns."

A practicing Catholic, Snyder is the author of Gun Saint, a biography of St. Gabriel Possenti, the Catholic seminarian who used his proficiency with handguns to rescue Italian villagers from a gang of bandits in 1860.