Filmmaker, documentarian, and Second Amendment advocate Zoe Warren declared that the gun ownership is not just compatible with Christian morality, but also a way Christians can fulfill the commandment to love their neighbors.
In an interview at a press conference organized by Church Militant on July 20, Warren discussed the implications of the Second Amendment for Christians.
“No government, especially the national government, should have the ability to stop me from helping my neighbor because I am commanded by God to love my neighbor as myself,” Warren explained. “Who better than a just person to bear the sword?”
“The areligious left, should they be the only ones armed? Or would it be better for it to be the local priest or the local youth pastor?” Warren asked, responding to those who refuse to bear arms because they perceive it to be incompatible with Christian values.
Asked why particular prelates and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at large have expressed favoritism towards gun control policies, Warren stated that they seem to hold that view “because they can afford to be surrounded by armed guards, but we cannot be. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“The Supreme Court has said on so many occasions that the police have no obligation to protect anybody not in their custody. So whose duty is it to protect me and my family?” Warren asked. “We’re supposed to be doing it ourselves,” he concluded.
Warren also said that media bias has played a significant role in the perception that the use of firearms runs contrary to the teachings of Christianity:
“The idea is that they take these concepts of ‘turn the other cheek’ and to love, to defer one another, submit one to another, and they try to use that as a weapon, it’s just really a bludgeon. The media, they like to parrot anything that’s going to work on behalf of the areligious left, of the Democrat Party.”
“They understand human nature enough to know that there’s a lot of people out there who are going to just go along with the flow,” Warren said.
In a speech at the same press conference, Warren noted that, despite the Second Amendment’s compatibility with Christian thought, “three cardinals from some of the largest cities in America — New York, Newark, and Chicago — have taken the position that Americans should voluntarily give up their right to guns.” In addition to the aforementioned cardinals, the USCCB issued a letter on June 3, 2022 which called for “a total ban on assault weapons and limitations on civilian access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines.”
Warren said that most of the pastors in his home state of South Carolina agree with him that communities should be well-trained and well-armed. But, while a few bishops, like Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, have spoken out in favor of the right to bear arms - characterizing it as “not only a right, but also a grave duty” - it appears that many American Catholic bishops are decidedly misinformed about the nature of the Second Amendment.
However, Warren suggested ways in which Catholic laity and other Christians can help convince their faith leaders to acknowledge gun rights and to speak about the importance of the Second Amendment from the pulpit. “Get together with your neighbors,” Warren said:
“Because we don’t know our neighbors, we have to hire people to protect us from our neighbors. They could be training us in tactical training, they could be taking us hunting, they could be teaching our children to be men and women who are honorable like they are.”
With so many prelates expressing misguided support for gun control, Warren said, it’s up to the community to spread the word that it’s the obligation of the laity to ensure that their God-given rights are preserved.