On the morning of June 20, FCNL hosted a dialogue on gun violence prevention with FCNL Executive Secretary Diane Randall and Peter Murchison.
Peter is a member of Wilton Quaker Meeting in Connecticut and an outspoken advocate for gun violence prevention. The event was organized during Gun Violence Awareness Month and part of a broader day of action pushing for Senate action on the Background Check Expansion Act (S. 42).
Peter engages in this important work in honor of his nephew, Daniel Barden, who lost his life in the Sandy Hook school shooting. During the event, Peter shared that it wasn’t the tragedy in and of itself that caused him to take action. It was watching the students of Parkland, Florida get involved and use their voices to push for change.
As Peter put it: “After Sandy Hook, we didn’t know what to do…the victims were too young, the parents didn’t know what to do. But after Parkland, the students were ticked off. And the students got it going…Sandy Hook knocked me off my feet, but the Parkland kids got me off my seat.”
Diane and Peter talked about how their faith guides their work, universal background checks, funding scientific research on gun violence, and the bipartisan momentum around extreme risk protection orders.
People from California to Baltimore tuned in and asked a range of questions—from the usefulness of pressuring gun manufacturers to community mediation in communities of color that face daily gun violence.
The event ended with a call to action: urge your member of Congress to support common-sense legislation that will reduce gun violence in our communities. Background checks are proven to help reduce gun violence – since background checks were first implemented in 1997, over 3 million people have been denied firearms. A background checks bill passed the House in February, but the Senate has thus far refused to take up S. 42.
If you want to join in and take action, please reach out to your Senator and urge them to support S. 42.