From Heeding God’s Call (http://www.heedinggodscall.org):
Philadelphia: Anyone waking this morning (March 15) seeing top new reports saw two very different, but intimately related, reports: First a horrific one from New Zealand of a monstrous massacre of praying innocents at two Muslim mosques; the other a Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision to allow the trying of a lawsuit against Remington Arms brought by parents of elementary students killed in the infamous 2013 Sandy Hook massacre by a man firing an AR-15 type gun made by Remington. The proceeding will open up the books and internal documents and conversations of a leading gun manufacturer, which gun companies have been able to avoid for decades.
“The Christchurch, NZ massacre of Muslims in their sacred places of worship is sickening and frightening, for all people and especially for those of faith,” said Reverend Daryll Dalton, Board Chair of Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence (Heeding). “It is past time for the faithful, those in the pews and their leaders, to rise up and demand that these weapons of war be removed from those who own them and prohibited from further manufacture and sales.”
“Both of these pieces of news involve assault weapons, military-style guns designed and manufactured to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible,” said Bryan Miller, Heeding’s Executive Director. “Assault weapons, as we’ve seen in the Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora, Orlando, Las Vegas, Christchurch and dozens of other massacres, rain untold death and destruction on schools, concerts, houses of worship and more. They have no reasonable place in civil society and their continued availability is, frankly, criminal.”
Miller cited the murder of his only brother, FBI Special Agent Mike Miller, along with two other law enforcement officers, in a 1994 massacre in Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Headquarters by a lone gunman wielding an assault pistol, and said: “Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence states loudly and clearly – grief, thoughts and prayers have long been insufficient when so many die because we let people own and use assault guns. We must demand more. It is time to ‘Demand the Ban’ again and with more vigor, as we did with colleagues in Philadelphia in April last year. We call on all people and communities of faith and others to join with us to ‘Demand the Ban!’”
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