Reflection....
We Are Making Progress
In the face of discouraging headlines, do you ever wonder if we are making any progress on gun violence prevention? Our answer is a qualified yes. In the wake of shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and every day, we are beginning to make long-overdue progress on preventing gun violence.
Another answer is, yes, but we have a long, long way to go.
Signs of Hope:
• Passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: While only a start, in June this legislation broke the nearly 30 year logjam on significant federal action to prevent gun violence and provides funding for many practical ways to save lives. It's a beginning.
• Confirmation of ATF Director: In July, the Senate finally voted to confirm a Director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, former prosecutor Steve Dettelbach, a specialist in prosecuting hate crimes. Keeping the ATF leaderless has been a key goal of the gun lobby, in order to weaken the ability of the United States to enforce current gun laws, including oversight of background checks. Thank you to all who contacted their senators to support this important confirmation!
• Slight drop in gun violence: - The New York Times reported this month that "Nationwide, shootings are down 4% this year compared to the same time last year. In big cities, murders are down 3%. If the decrease in murders continues for the rest of 2022, it will be the first year since 2018 in which they fell in the U.S."
Some of the decline is due to recovery from the Pandemic. Read the full analysis
HERE.
• Crackdown on Illegal Gun Trafficking: The US Justice Department, under the Biden Administration, has escalated investigation and prosecution for illegal gun trafficking. While not very visible to the public, this is a key step toward reducing gun violence and keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them.
• Grassroots Activism: Positive social change requires sustained action from the bottom up as well as from the top down. That's why the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and now the General Assembly of the PCUSA, support visible, prophetic actions such as the Guns to Gardens movement. On July 30, at a gun "buy back" event in Houston, 845 unwanted guns were safely surrendered in just a few hours. In addition to ridding homes and communities of unwanted guns, other grassroots efforts include: remembering names of gun violence victims in our worship services; voter education and registration for the Nov. 8 elections; suicide and domestic violence prevention programs; community education events about the need to limit assault weapons and to expand background checks; gun safe storage and gun safe technology campaigns; neighborhood revitalization projects and gardens; advocacy, prayer and other steps.
Theologian Shane Claiborne, a spiritual leader of the Guns to Gardens movement, describes Isaiah 2:4 as the grassroots moment when God's people rise up. They are so tired of violence that they start taking things into their own hands, beating their swords into tools for farming. As Claiborne puts it, "The image we receive from the prophet is that God's change comes from the bottom up."
For all these glimpses of hope and for each congregation, family and individual who takes action for the long haul, we give thanks. And as we always say in the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship: Keep on keepin' on!
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