The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has submitted an amicus brief in a pending Supreme Court case on a law that allows people under domestic restraining orders to be banned from carrying firearms.

"As the Church teaches, and this nation's historical traditions demonstrate, the right to bear arms is not an unqualified licence that must leave vulnerable family members to live in fear," said the bishops' amicus brief, submitted on 22 August.

"Abused victims are precisely the people whom a just government is tasked with protecting. The Second Amendment does not stand as a barrier to their safety."

Read More

Following last week's slaughter of 17 pupils at a Florida school, he adjusted his church's billboard to read: "WHEN WILL THEY LOVE THEIR KIDS MORE THAN THEIR GUNS". Read more

That was my colleague Adam Gopnik commenting the other day on America's attitude toward gun laws. Having read some of the comments on my own post about President Obama's failure to pursue more restrictions on the sale of firearms, I can only agree with Adam. When Bill Moyers, Keith Olbermann, Mayor Bloomberg, and Rupert Murdoch are all in favor of something—in this case, tougher gun laws—and there's still no chance of it being enacted, you can rest assured that forces other than reason and partisan politics are involved.

My only quibble with Adam is his use of the singular form: "a belief." Are firearms the only subject on which Americans are, let us say, a little batty? I'm not so sure. Having lived here for almost thirty years, and having been a U.S. citizen for the past five, I am greatly attached to this country and admire many aspects of it enormously. But the dogged persistence of certain American shibboleths has always struck me as somewhat curious. Read more

Sources

• John Cassidy in The New Yorker
• Image: HaveeruOnline

John Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995.