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“Despite broad support for handgun controls little action has been taken by governments,” the Religious News Service announced in a press release published in March 1980.
“While most religious groups favor gun control laws, little legislative action has been taken and 250,000 U.S. citizens still face a loaded handgun yearly,” the press release stated. The correlating image was of a billboard “dramatizing majority opposition to handguns,” one of many similar advertisements scattered across the U.S. The RNS reporter writes that these billboard campaigns have had “little effect in the U.S. where there are an estimated 50 million such weapons in half the households — with another 2.5 million more pouring in yearly.”
In the almost 50 years since this press release was published, and in the decades that preceded it, Presbyterians have been active in the discussion on gun control and fight to eradicate gun violence. Since the 1960s, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations have responded to gun violence by emphasizing the need to control the sale and possession of firearms and advocating for education and action at various levels of government.
There are many materials in the archives of the Presbyterian Historical Society that illustrate the Presbyterian Church’s response to gun violence and related social justice issues. Previous General Assemblies have passed legislation on the topic; groups have been formed and annual observances are instituted; articles and news alerts and studies have been conducted.
The 226th General Assembly in 2024 — recognizing that gun violence profoundly impacts the nation’s children — voted that every PC(USA) congregation take action of their own, such as promoting secure gun storage, taking part in the Guns to Gardens initiative, or praying for the emotional, mental, and spiritual health of children growing up in an era rife with gun violence. Years before, in 2010, the 219th General Assembly passed an overture with a rationale that stated that “It is time to enact God’s ‘No.’ It is time to recover the constructive moral outrage of the prophets and the moral courage of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before.” A documentary produced by Counter Stories Productions titled “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” went together with a four-session study unit created by Carol Wehrheim, created in response to the above overture.
To go back even further, in 1996 the General Assembly stated that “except for military and law enforcement use, further manufacture and sale of assault weapons and concealable handguns should be prohibited.” 1998 saw the General Assembly call all Presbyterians to work toward removing handguns and assault weapons from their homes and communities; the following year, the 211th General Assembly reaffirmed the denomination’s position “in support of legitimate possession and use of firearms in hunting, target shooting, and other recreational sports.”
The May 1999 edition of Presbyterians Today featured an article with the headline “Guns: Peacekeepers — or Grim Reapers?” Within the article was the story of First Presbyterian Church in Elgin, Illinois, whose congregants came together to sponsor a “Gun Turn-In” event. Inspired by the previous year’s call from the General Assembly to work toward removing guns from homes, the church organized this initial event in just six weeks. Volunteers collected 30 guns and 1,300 rounds of ammunition, with each person who turned in a gun receiving a gift certificate from a local business. Lisa Stravinskas, who was responsible for bringing the event idea in front of the congregation, said that “Even one would have made it worthwhile.”
On March 11, 2000, PC(USA)’s office of Stewardship of Public Life published a “Special Action Alert on Gun Control Bills,” which encouraged readers to “support pending legislation that would bring about common sense control laws.”
In 1944, Presbyterian Conscientious Objectors and their supporters founded the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, a nationwide community of Presbyterians who act on the nonviolence of Jesus Christ across many peacemaking issues. PPF hosts an annual gun violence prevention training called the Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage, named after the late Rev. Jim Atwood. Each year, the Atwood Institute trains clergy and lay leaders in gun violence prevention practical skills for congregational use, including managing trauma and opposition and engaging congregations in practical GVP education and action, including legislative advocacy, secure storage efforts and other steps to protect children from gun violence.
James Atwood was a Presbyterian missionary to Japan, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia, and an avid hunter — until a charter member of the Virginia congregation was shot and killed during a robbery in 1975. This led Atwood to join the board of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and for nearly 50 years he called on the church to take action to balance the rights of responsible gun owners with the right to live free from the epidemic of gun violence. He penned multiple books on the topic, including titles such as “Collateral Damage” and “America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé.” During his lifetime he served as chair of the anti-gun violence group Heeding God’s Call of Greater Washington, interfaith coordinator of the Million Mom March, and a member of the National Committee of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
Atwood died in the summer of 2020. During the week before his death, he was honored by the then-Stated Clerk of the General Assemblyk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, with the PC(USA) Crystal Teardrop Award for his work in gun violence prevention. This year’s Atwood Institute takes place September 15-18 in Parkville, Missouri. Graduates of the program will continue to advocate on behalf of Atwood and his dream of a world without gun violence.
With perseverance, patience, and passion, Presbyterians continue to fight against the plague of gun violence in the United States, including at the 227th General Assembly during Community Day, when hundreds joined in prayer, and in the years and decades to come.
