Contact: John Snyder, St. Gabriel Possenti Society, 703-212-9863

ARLINGTON, Va., July 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Last month's historic Supreme Court gun rights decision is a blockbuster development for the right of individual self-defense in religious as well as secular spheres of interest," John M. Snyder, Founder-Chairman of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc. declared here today.

"All of the Justices who voted in the 5-4 majority for individual gun rights are Catholic," Snyder noted. "In the United States, institutional Catholic Church leaders have been on the wrong side of the right to arms for self-defense issue. The Social Development and World Peace Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports prohibition of the importation, manufacture, sale, possession and use of handguns. Individual clergy, including bishops, also have gone off the deep end on this issue. Let them listen to the solid gun rights majority of Catholic Supreme Court Justices. Let them consider that the right to life does not end with birth but continues throughout natural life and includes the right to self-defense and the right to arms for self-defense."

In the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court ruled 5-4 June 26 that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. "This repudiates the contention that the Amendment refers merely to a so-called 'collective right,'" Snyder said. "The Court nullified a ban on the possession of an operable handgun in one's home. The individual right to keep and bear arms includes the individual right to keep and bear handguns. It's a definitive statement in favor of the right to use handguns for self-defense."

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. Joining him were Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The international, interdenominational Society honors St. Gabriel Possenti, a seminarian who used handguns in 1860 to rescue villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy from a gang of terrorizing marauders. Possenti died two years later. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. The Society advocates Possenti's Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners. It emphasizes historical, philosophical and theological aspects of legitimate self-defense.