on gun control while offering prayers for the victims of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis.  The first American pope made his remarks following the August 27 shooting which killed two children and injured 18 others as students and staff gathered for a school Mass.

“Let us plead [to] God to stop the pandemic of arms large and small which infects our world,” the Chicago-born pontiff told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square following the weekly Sunday Angelus prayer. Leo, speaking in his native English, said he was offering “prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American state of Minnesota” and the “countless children” who are killed and injured every day.

Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, frequently condemned the arms industry and warned that the use of guns by civilians to defend themselves had become a “habit.” Leo, who was elected in May, has continued to condemn the “logic of weapons” and the arms trade, though in a telegram sent in the immediate aftermath of the Minneapolis shooting he refrained from making any comments about gun control. In the past, however, a now-deleted X account apparently belonging to Robert Prevost – before he was elected pope – re-posted statements by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago calling for “increased access to mental health care and stronger, sensible gun control laws” following the 2017 shootings in Las Vegas.

He also shared a statement from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy who wrote on the same incident: “To my colleagues: Your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.” Following the Minneapolis shooting, Cupich, who is close to Leo, issued his own a statement saying: “The facts are clear. Guns are plentiful and common sense attempts to limit their availability have been largely rejected in the name of a freedom not found in our constitution.” (CNN/Getty Images)