Me or the Times? I understand that phrase to mean regardless of the situation, you're damned if you do, or you're damned if you don't. Don't expect the Times to make sense writing about guns.
The Times, of course (they're the ones who used it, not you). I phrased it like that because "I do not think that word means what you think it means" is a quote from a movie.
The Times probably understand "Catch-22" to mean "something illogical and bad," which is what Heller's book "Catch-22" was full of. But you are right, the correct definition is a lose-lose situation.