GUN SAINT

By John Michael Snyder

Telum Associates, L.L.C. Arlington VA 2003 129 pages

           In 1860, bandits occupied the town of Isola, Italy and began to loot, burn, and rape.  Gabriel Possenti, a monk from the local monastery asked the bandits to stop looting, burning, and raping; the bandits laughed in his face.  He grabbed a pair of revolvers from a bandit and asked them to stop looting, burning, and raping; the bandits still laughed in his face (a painting of the monk shows that he was a nerd).  The bandits demanded what the monk thought he could do with the pistols.  The monk pointed out a lizard running across the road, and took its head off with a snap shot.  The bandits suddenly understood the concept of the operation, and stopped looting, and burning, and raping.  He was made a saint in 1920 for unrelated miracles involving arthritis cures.

          The author is the founder of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc.  The Society spreads the Saint’s story, and lobbies to make him the patron saint of handgunners.  The book is a collection of articles concerning the Saint and efforts to make him our patron saint.  Many of the articles are repetitious; however they provide an easily accessible history of the Saint, and a record of Church officials who oppose making him our patron only because we are gun owners.  The work is valuable to gun rights activists and persons interested in the morality of self-defense.  

Copies may be ordered at (703) 418-0849.