Every day there are new reports of gun violence in cities across the country, in schools, churches, and local businesses. A few weeks ago, five people were killed and as many as nine others were wounded at a bank building in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, just blocks from the national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In the hours and days following that shooting, there has been more gun violence, including a mass shooting in Texas over the past weekend.

The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), recently paid a visit to a memorial on the steps of the Old National Bank building in Louisville where the mass shootings took place. In this month’s  A Word from the Stated Clerk, Nelson calls for more accountability and action to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.