Abortion, Guns, and Catholicism's Seamless Garment

Christy Sheats, Taylor Sheats, Madison Sheats

Both abortion and gun-love were in the news recently.

The Supreme Court struck down prohibitive and unnecessary regulation of abortion in Texas.

Also in Texas, a woman named Christy Sheats shot her two daughters to death in front of their father and her husband. Sheats was in turn shot to death by police.

Christy Sheats had previously posted on Facebook about how she needed a gun to "protect her family." "It would be horribly tragic if my ability to protect myself or my family were to be taken away, but that's exactly what Democrats are determined to do by banning semi-automatic handguns."

Two days ago a six-year-old shot a four-year-old to death in East Orange, NJ.

If guns are handy and people who otherwise would not commit gun crimes have access to guns when they are having a psychotic break, feeling suicidal, or merely clumsy, people will use those handy guns to kill each other.

If the guns are not handy, chances are these people would not kill themselves or others. People calm down, they get help for their mental problems. The child plays with a toy that isn't a gun and doesn't kill anyone.

Many have remarked that it is strange that gun-lovers are often anti-choice.

My position on abortion can be reduced to this: Abortion ends a human life. There is a moral cost. I think abortion should be legal. I think those of us who value human life should work to make it less common. Outlawing abortion does not make abortion less common; outlawing abortion merely makes abortion more dangerous. I could say more but this isn't the place or time for more on abortion.

This is the place and time to mention Catholicism's "seamless garment" or consistent life ethic. To love guns past the point of rational concern for human life and to oppose abortion is inconsistent. If you obey God's command to value human life, you must do so in a consistent manner. Do not love guns more than you value human life.