Pro-gun Catholics in Dallas, Texas, are upset about the Catholic diocese's decision to ban firearms in churches and took issue with the bishop's blog post against the open carry policy in the state.
Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell wrote on Jan. 5 that "it is absurd that terrorists, criminals, and mentally unbalanced people can freely and openly buy weapons not intended for sport, but designed to kill people."
"Writers of the Second Amendment envisioned smooth bore muskets and not semi-automatic and automatic weapons of war," he said.
He lamented that "Texas has become the 45th state to embrace the cowboy mentality that permits the open carrying of guns. It is difficult to see how this new law allowing persons with concealed handgun licenses (CHL) to openly carry firearms can accomplish anything other than cause people to feel threatened and intimidated."
But some Catholics do not agree with the bishop's position.
Catholic gun owner Charles Cleaver of North Oak Cliff described Farrell as a leftist.
"He just likes to ram these things down people's throats. I don't know who he's [Farrell] trying to appeal to," he said, according to Dallas News and Raw Story.
A Catholic blogger wrote, "Why doesn't he just call us a bunch of mouth-breathing inbred hicks and be done with it?"
"More Americans are killed by automobiles every year in this country than firearms, but Bishop Farrell doesn't spend time, effort, and precious moral capital railing in favour of legislation demanding greater automotive safety, because he's familiar with cars, probably uses one most days, and thinks they're great," the blogger wrote.
The blogger added, "So he's quite willing to put up with their downside. But he doesn't feel that way about guns, because they're black and scary and icky and only a knuckle-dragging troglodyte would ever want one. Even though almost 2/3 of annual firearms deaths are involved not in murders, but in suicides."
But according to the Washington Post, guns and automobiles now kill Americans at the same rate.
"In 2014, the age-adjusted death rate for both firearms (including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths) and motor vehicle events (car crashes, collisions between cars and pedestrians, etc) stood at 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people," according to a Washington Post story.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that in Georgia and 28 other states, gun deaths outnumber automobile-related deaths.
"Let us pray that our legislators will see this as a human and not a political concern so that gun violence can be mitigated through appropriate legislation that allows us to live in a safe environment while respecting our Second Amendment rights," Farrell wrote.
Cleaver vowed to carry his gun to church.
"What good would that [gun] do for you if you're not carrying?" he said.
