Society Salutes Pistol-Packin' Nuns in Colombia

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 30, 1999 | by John Elvin

In the wake of a spate of bad publicity regarding handguns, pro-gun activist John Michael Snyder, president of the international St. Gabriel Possenti Society Inc., found reason to commend Sisters Eva Maria Silva and Luz Adelia Barragan of El Topo Monastery in Tunja, Colombia.

The pair had taken up armed nightly patrols of the monastery, which houses a collection of religious art described in news reports as "priceless." In the most recent of seven break-ins so far this year, an intruder was shot and killed.

The incident "should serve as a warning to the criminal element that religious persons and establishments are not necessarily easy targets," Snyder said. "Nuns, too, have a God-given right to self-defense."

Snyder hopes to present the nuns with medallions issued by the society featuring St. Gabriel Possenti flanked by a lizard and a handgun. Possenti is said to have dissuaded terrorists from taking over the village of Isola in Italy by demonstrating his prowess with a handgun back in 1860. The demonstration involved dispatching a lizard with a single shot.