Saturday 3rd June 2023

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

The Gun Did It!

October 23, 2017 Frontpage No Comments

By MIKE MANNO

On August 1, 1966, 25-year-old Charles Whitman, an engineering student at the University of Texas, took a sawed-off shotgun, three rifles, and two pistols to the twenty-eighth floor observation deck of the University Tower in Austin. There he began to indiscriminately shoot at the people below, some of whom were as far as two blocks away.
Finally, Police Officer Ramiro Martinez shot and killed Whitman, ending the 96-minute rampage that killed 15, including an unborn child, and left 43 others injured. Later it was found that earlier that day Whitman had killed his wife, Kathy, and his mother, Margaret. He had stabbed both women to death.
Thus ended the saga of the first modern mass killing in U.S. history, and it shocked the nation. Whitman, a mentally unbalanced Marine Corps veteran, was buried four days later with full military honors.
Since then there have been over a dozen such mass killings in places like Ft. Hood, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Orlando, San Bernardino, and, of course, most recently, Las Vegas. And in each of these cases the cause has always been guns, or so the national media and the usual flock of politicians will say.
Pardon me for disagreeing. I don’t think guns are to blame for these killings anymore than automobiles are to blame for drunk-driving deaths. I think the blame is more basic than that. I think the devaluation of life and the desensitizing of death is to blame.
Let me explain.
In 1962 a children’s television personality in Phoenix, Sherri Finkbine (Miss Sherri), found herself pregnant after taking the drug Thalidomide. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Finkbine was that one of the drug’s side effects on pregnant women was babies born with phocomelia: a condition of being born without fully developed limbs.
She sought an abortion at a local hospital, but when the story became public, the negative public reaction caused the hospital to back down and her employer to fire her. After several legal battles failed, the Royal Swedish Medical Board approved an abortion to preserve Mrs. Finkbine’s “mental health,” with no recourse to the baby’s humanity.
The story ultimately galvanized support for abortion and by 1965, 77 percent of those polled supported “abortion rights” in at least some circumstances. This then led to the abortion rights movement that culminated in 1973 with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.
Abortion “rights” are now so prevalent that in 2015 it was estimated that nearly 38 percent of pregnancies in New York City were ended by abortion. That year saw 926,240 reported abortions in the United States; a UN report found that only nine countries, including Cuba, have a higher rate than the U.S. By religion, approximately 30 percent of the women receiving abortions claim they are Protestant, and 24 percent say they are Catholic.
So accepted is the killing of the unborn that the mainstream media and one great (or maybe formerly great) political party tout abortion as the be-all and end-all of civil rights. So much so that the actress Martha Plimpton could proudly proclaim that her abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Seattle was her “best” abortion ever. And a 17-year-old high school senior, Aja Dailey, developed a senior class project around her choice to abort, a project designed to normalize and de-stigmatize abortion for her classmates.
The same is happening with physician-prescribed suicide, or, as some have called it, “aid in dying,” or “death with dignity,” or as I call it: “doctor prescribed death” and in some cases, euthanasia.
Court cases throughout the nation — and, for that matter, the world — can be seen tip-toeing into the slippery slope of mercy killings and state-sponsored suicide. All of which is the outgrowth of the notorious “doctor of death,” Jack Kevorkian, who as early as 1959 was arguing that death-row inmates should be allowed to volunteer for medical experimentation as a method of execution. By 1987 he was advertising himself as a “death consultant” and in 1987 he assisted a 54-year-old Alzheimer’s patient, Janet Adkins, to commit suicide.
Kevorkian’s attorney estimated that during the years 1990 to 1998, Dr. Kevorkian had assisted in the suicides of 130 terminally ill persons. All the deaths to this point were carried out through the assistance of a machine that the doctor would hook up that allowed the patient to flip a switch, as it were, to start the flow of death-dealing drugs into the patient. His fatal flaw was in 1998 when he actually administered the drug to a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient and was found guilty of second degree murder and imprisoned.
Since that time “death with dignity” advocates have championed the cause of, first, physician assistance for those wanting to end their lives, and now the actual killing of individuals whose worth is meaningless.
Several states, such as California, Washington, and Oregon, have made such killings legal under the guise of end of life options. However, the laws have, as all such laws do, produced unexpected results. For example, in California, after it passed its “End of Life Options Act,” Stephanie Packer was denied chemotherapy treatment by her insurance company which, instead, offered to pay for the drugs necessary for her to commit suicide.
Most of the laws provide little or no protection for the patient. For example, usually the patient must make the request in writing with a witness. There is no regulation on who that witness may be — it could be the one family member “assigned” to take care of the person and who’d like out, or the nephew who inherits. No protection for the patient, just a signature.
Drugs are delivered — sometimes by mail — and the patient is expected to take them as directed with no requirement that a medical person supervise or even be present. Thus a patient who changes his mind could have the pills ground and put in his food without his knowledge. There is no oversight.
In other cases a surrogate decision-maker, such as a guardian or a person holding a medical power of attorney, and sometimes the hospital or living center where the patient is located, can make the decision for the patient without any reference to what the patient wants, or needs.
Often it is required that the patient’s death certificate make no reference to suicide, only to the underlying disease (if there is one), making it impossible to track the true number of suicides under the law.
And, like abortion, this phenomenon is engulfing the world with shocking results. This year in the Netherlands an 80-year-old woman had to be held down by family members while the doctor administered the drug that euthanized her. Later the state’s medical board ruled that the doctor had “acted in good faith.”
Again, in the Netherlands any child age 12 to 16 can ask to be euthanized if their parents agree; at age 16-18 their parents only need to be “involved” in the decision but need not agree. Under its “Complete Life Bill” any person over 75 can asked to be euthanized for any reason.
Belgium legalized lethal injections for children in 2014. In 2010 Tina Nys, 37, was euthanized for “unbearable psychological suffering” even though no physician tried to treat her psychological problems.
In 2015 a 24-year-old was euthanized for having suicidal thoughts. That same year a Belgium soccer team celebrated the life of one of its fans as part of his farewell, as he was going to be euthanized the next day.
In Switzerland an Italian woman in 2014 was euthanized because she was upset over losing her looks. Her family only found out about her death when the woman’s attorney delivered her ashes to them.
And in Canada it is reported that under its Medical Assistance in Dying law the vast majority of deaths, 504 out of 507, were by euthanasia.
Of course the rise of abortion “rights” and medical assistance in dying do not, by themselves, shoulder all the blame for the loss of respect for life.
Over the past half century there has been a noticeable decline in morality, as almost any social scientist will attest. People, even from strong Christian families, have become unchurched in record numbers; values have plummeted and moral concepts have given way to “feelings” as our belief system has become one of relativism where truth fluctuates from person to person according to the latest political or social whim.
And, as we have seen with the breakdown of traditional marriage, its undoing started not with demands for same-sex marriage, but with the rise of cohabitation, single-parent families, and no-fault divorce, concepts which were ultimately blended into demands for equality by homosexual groups. All of which are promoted by that side of the political aisle that demands “common sense” gun control.
There are slippery slopes all over the political and social landscape: Morality is determined by each individual, history we don’t like can be expunged, the legal foundation on which the nation was built conflicts with the new progressivism, and the list can go on and on.
Drip, drip, drip until the foundation is eroded: Is that were we are headed? Are we just treating the symptoms and not the disease? Or do we not even recognize the disease?
The real answer, of course, is to take away all the guns.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Twitter Feed

Unable to load Tweets

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Pontifical Academy for Life president calls medically assisted suicide ‘feasible’

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 23, 2023 / 15:02 pm Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has spoken in support of legalized medically assisted suicide, calling it “feasible” despite the clear teachings of the Catholic Church against it. “Personally, I would not practice suicide assistance, but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions

Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Lower Court Ruling Banning Mail-Order Abortions

The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling banning mail-order abortions and putting safety measures in place to protect women who are currently being injured at high rates by the abortion pill. The high court made the decision to allow but sides in the legal battle the chance to provide additional information and to allow it to more fully consider the case next week. Also, another federa judge issued a contrasting ruling that…Continue Reading

A Call to Action for Parents . . . Minnesotans Wake UP! The Insanity in This State Continues!

">Cardinals Burke . . . SAME-SEX UNION BLESSINGS?

Longtime teacher fired after discussing God in classroom, challenging ‘evil’ LGBT school policy

(LifeSiteNews) — A longtime public school teacher in Idaho was let go earlier this month for being unafraid to mention God in the classroom and voicing his objections to a pro-LGBT policy designed to promote “transgender” ideologies among young people.  Ian O’Connell, a Catholic teacher who served as a substitute in the public institutions of Caldwell School District for over 20 years, spoke on February 13 about a proposed “gender identity and sexual orientation” policy that…Continue Reading

Feminist Professor Who Vandalized Pro-Life Table . . . Gets Fired After Holding Machete To Reporter’s Neck

By MICAIAH BILGER WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeNews) — A New York City art professor accused of vandalizing a pro-life student display and later threatening two journalists with a machete has been fired from her job.Shellyne Rodriguez, of the Bronx, was an adjunct assistant professor of art at Hunter College, a public, taxpayer-funded school under the City…Continue Reading

A Symptom Of Urban Crime’s Toll On College Students

By ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS In recent years, there has been a surge in violent crime in our nation’s capital, and unfortunately, our college students have not been spared. This issue has become symptomatic of a larger problem that plagues urban cities across the nation, where college students are being robbed and carjacked, all at gunpoint. As…Continue Reading

San Quentin Prison And School Choice

By TERENCE P. JEFFREY When I was a boy, I spent some time inside San Quentin State Prison and got to know a few of the inmates there.The San Rafael Little League played its games in that prison and a group of inmates known as “trustees” umpired them.The grounds of San Quentin were considerably larger…Continue Reading

Stumbling Toward Heaven?… Will Biden Repent Of His Evils Before A Serious Fall Could Harm Him?

By DEXTER DUGGAN Does Joe Biden understand the generosity that God continues to extend to him and his allies who keep trying to drag nations into degeneracy and death?Even though Catholics have come to expect the promotion of awful immorality by some of the U.S.’s most powerful reputedly Catholic politicians — all of them left-wing…Continue Reading

As His Cause Moves Forward… Joseph Dutton’s 180th Birthday Celebrated

By PEGGY MOEN Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu was invited to Stowe, Vt., to help celebrate the 180th birthday of Joseph Dutton, according to a report in The Hawaii Catholic Herald by Patrick Downes, editor. If canonized, Dutton will be the third saint honored for service at the Hansen’s disease settlement in Kalaupapa, Molokai, the…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Q. Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.” When will Catholics be able to drink from the cup again? — D.L.H., Iowa.A. The practice of receiving Jesus under both the species of bread and wine was halted during…Continue Reading

In The End, Faith Alone Counts

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Appearances can be deceiving. This overworn adage is so because, human nature being what it is, we must be often reminded of the foolishness, and sometimes the danger, of judging reality purely by what is palpable to our sense of sight. To our eyes, the seeming solidity of the Earth upon which we tread and…Continue Reading

Pondering A Forgotten Virtue: Vengeance

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Pope posted this commentary May 22 on his website, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + Most of us think that vengeance is merely a vice. And, given improper intentions, or excess or misguided application, it can indeed be a sin and a vice. However, as we read in Scripture, “Vengeance…Continue Reading

Minnesota Legislature Repeals . . . Protection For Born-Alive Infants, Support For Pregnant Women

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota legislature on May 22 approved an Omnibus health bill that repeals a bipartisan measure protecting newborns and a bipartisan program supporting pregnant women who want to carry their babies to term. It also rescinds a number of longstanding laws surrounding abortion. As of this writing, Gov. Tim Walz was expected to sign the wide-ranging bill,…Continue Reading

A Mystery To Ponder For All Eternity

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Solemnity Of The Most Holy Trinity (YR A) Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-92 Cor. 13:11-13John 3:16-18 In the readings today, we hear about several attributes of God: grace, mercy, kind, faithful, slow to anger, fellowship, love, and peace. It is also important to note that whenever God is spoken of, it is clear that there is only…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)