Anglican leader backs gun control in U.S.

LONDON -- The spiritual leader of the world's 80 million-strong Anglican Communion threw his support behind stricter gun laws in the United States Saturday, saying the easy availability of powerful weapons drew vulnerable people toward violence.

Rowan Williams, who is stepping down from his role as the archbishop of Canterbury at the end of the year, referred to the recent massacre of 26 children and staff at a school in Newtown, Conn.

Williams said it was hard to get into the spirit of Christmas given the "lives cut so brutally short and of the unimaginable loss and trauma suffered by parents." He made the comments on the BBC radio program "Thought for the Day," a slot devoted to religious perspectives on life and current affairs.

The Episcopal Church, a member of the global Anglican Communion, has around 2 million baptized members in the United States.

Williams acknowledged that gun control was a sensitive issue in the United States, but said the firepower that weapons manufacturers were putting at Americans' disposal made such massacres more likely.

"People use guns but, in a sense, guns use people too," he said. "When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action."

Britain has far stricter controls on firearms and far lower levels of gun crime than the United States -- so much so that few British police officers carry guns.