Interfaith gun violence rally uses lawmaker letter campaign to demand more than just thoughts and prayers

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More than two hundred people gathered outside Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Montgomery County Sunday for a Lansdale Gun Violence Awareness Day.

The event, organized by the interfaith group, ‘Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence’, led attendees through song and prayer before encouraging them to sign form letters to local lawmakers, supporting “common sense” gun control measures.

“[Laws] like background checks, which should not be objectionable to anybody,” Andy Faga, a member of the St. John United Church of Christ in Lansdale, said. “Things like the extreme protection acts to remove guns from people who clearly shouldn’t have them… there’s no need for assault weapons in our country. Things that just make sense.”

Heedings’ Executive Director Bryan Miller said faith leaders are paramount to gun reform.

“We believe that the faith community is the missing component and why we don’t get anything done on guns in this country, especially in this state” he said.

“I don’t care what faith it is —  people of faith have a responsibility to our fellow fellows. On the gun issue, the faith community has finally begun to stand up, take its rightful role and start working towards change.” Miller added. “I’ve been doing [anti-violence work] for 25 years; it’s made me more optimistic than ever.”

Since its founding in 2008, Heeding has advocated for gun reform and has hosted similar Gun Violence Awareness Days across Pennsylvania.

“Legislation takes time, and change takes time,” said Miller. “But the only way to bring about change is to work at it, be committed to it, not to just today, but for other days in the future.”