GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION TASK FORCE
Join us to see possible ways your congregation can spread the word about the issue of gun violence.
I. Create our network – We will introduce ourselves and form friendships that can sustain us as we work on this (largely American) problem. We will try a breathing meditation suggested by the new Lutheran Minister of Gun Violence Prevention, Deanna Hollas, to help us get through this often-emotional and difficult work.
II. Handouts and Display
A. See some of the orange origami cranes made by Beacon Summit congregants during June coffee hours to honor New Jersey gun victims (1/1/19 to 6/30/19) whose names are recorded on each crane. Nearly 90 cranes were made.
B. Handouts provided by Carinne Murphy, from Central Unitarian Church during their observance of Gun Violence Awareness weekend, June 2-4, 2019.
C. Literature from Unitarian Church in Cherry Hill’s symposium on Suicide Prevention.
III. Educational – We will watch AIMING FOR SAFETY, a 7-minute film that presents six possible solutions to gun violence, a film by George Faison available on YouTube. George is a gun-owning hunter and a UU congregant at Beacon, whose message should appeal to both sides of this issue. We will discuss ways to disseminate this film.
IV. Legislative – In New Jersey, we are lucky to have a governor and attorney general who support the issue of preventing gun violence. We will review and talk about the many bills that Gov. Murphy has signed into law, bills that make New Jersey one of the most safe states in the country.
A. One still-pending bill was co-written by UU Faith Action: the SAFE STORAGE BILL, A 3696 / S2204. We will try to Skype with Jeannine Coyne, former head of this Task Force, who was instrumental, along with Rob Gregson, in drafting this bill. Jeannine cannot join us in person.
B. ERPO, Extreme Risk Protection Order, went into effect 9/1/19. We will go through a training on 1) how to interpret ERPO and – more important – 2) how to initiate it. We will also discuss avenues to set up training sessions in your own towns or areas.