A Pastoral Letter to the Parish on Gun Violence

In days to come
     the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
     and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
     Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
     to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
     and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
     and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
     and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
     and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
     neither shall they learn war any more. 
-Isaiah 2:2-4

These words of Isaiah have been proclaimed many times as the faithful in every generation have addressed violence in the world around them. Unfortunately, they are much needed still today. For the second time in recent months, we are left to process an assassination attempt against a candidate for the presidency. This attempt at political violence is intolerable, and there is no room for it in our political and national life. 

We are also only a few weeks removed from the recent school shooting in Georgia. Families around the country are holding their children a second longer before sending them off to school for the day, and many spend those hours worrying just how safe their children are. Closer to home here in Hampton Roads, we are grieving the senseless shooting of a 15-year-old student waiting for a school bus in Newport News. 

Not only is his death a heartbreaking event in itself, the fuller scope of this event reminds us that the aftermath of school shootings is felt well beyond those who are struck by bullets. According to recent reporting, more than 900 students in the Newport News school system were absent in the week following the shooting out of fear. Similarly, recent scares at Old Dominion University have left students in fear of their safety as the school year begins. These are just two examples of the shock waves that reverberate out into our communities after violent events. Sadly, those shock waves are well known to the communities in which we live and work. Many of us remember and continue to be impacted by mass shootings in this area, including the Chesapeake Walmart shooting in 2022 and the Virginia Beach Municipal Building Shooting in 2019. 

But the problem goes deeper. As shocking and traumatic as mass shootings are, they account for only 1% of shooting deaths in America. Nearly 60% of all gun deaths are suicides – a truly staggering number. Many of the rest of the gun deaths are shootings within communities that are smaller in scale but still terribly destructive of people’s sense of safety and trust. If you want some truly sobering statistics, WAVY News has tracked shootings in Hampton Roads since 2021 on an interactive map.

The problem of gun violence is complex and multifaceted. But it is clearly destroying our communities. And in a season in our parish’s life where we are committing to “Keeping Community” we, your clergy, feel compelled to condemn those things which threaten the very life and wellbeing of our communities. Coupled with an ongoing mental health crisis in America, the ease of access to guns in our country threatens all our lives. This is why gun violence has rightly been called a public health crisis. It is taking a physical, mental, and spiritual toll on all of us.

The question for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, is the same as it is for any problem that arises from the brokenness of the world around us. What does our faith require of us? The Baptismal Covenant (Book of Common Prayer, p. 304-305) has a series of promises each Christian makes that call us to action. These promises accompany the communal statements about our belief in God in the creeds—belief in the goodness of God, belief in God’s ability to overcome the horrors of the world, belief in God’s love for us. The baptismal promises take those inherent beliefs and then call us to act to help reveal their truth in the world around us. 

The whole baptismal service could be summarized with: God is good. God will overcome evil. God loves us. Now go out and transform the world in that love. 

With that loving transformation in mind, one of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant is to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. Gun violence is inherently unjust and unpeaceful. The structures that perpetuate the problem of gun violence in America are unjust and unpeaceful. Our inaction over gun violence is unjust and unpeaceful. 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must find ways to address this horribly unjust and unpeaceful facet of our lives. While the problem is complex, while the problem is difficult, while no one response will fix the entirety of the problem before us, it is our duty as Christians to respond through the power of God’s love. 

Part of belonging to a denominational church like The Episcopal Church means that we have resources and connections across the nation which allows us to witness, learn, and act within the diversity of our church. Similarly, when The Episcopal Church speaks, we have a voice that is greater than any one of our parts. The Episcopal Church has supported common sense policies to govern access to guns through varying resolutions at our General Convention over the past 20 years. 

One particularly helpful resource from the Church is Bishops United Against Gun Violence – a coalition of Episcopal Bishops who are actively working to address this issue. Their website hosts a wealth of resources to help develop your understanding of this issue through the lens of our communal faith, as well as to help you begin to formulate your own response and actions. Our own bishop, The Rt. Rev. Susan Haynes, is a member of this coalition. We highly recommend this resource to you. 

Also helpful are their resources for prayer. Often in the wake of violence, it is difficult to find words that put our fear, anger, and grief into the right context. You will find many prayer resources at the link above which help in that journey. Please know that your faith community feels your fear, your anger, your grief, your emotions too complex to name. We are here with you to process these emotions, to seek healing, and to promote a more peaceful world. God does not desire for us to live in fear. 

There is still much to do to make Isaiah’s prophecy at the beginning of this letter come to fruition. May those words remind us that the reality we live in is not the reality that God desires. Nor is it a reality that God will allow to continue. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Isaiah asks us to imagine a world that is transformed by love. 

Imagine a world where there is no need for weapons of death, but only instruments of peace.

Imagine a world where children are free to enter schools thinking about their upcoming math test, rather than locating the nearest place to hide.

Imagine a world where political disputes are resolved by conversation and civil debate, rather than bullets.

Imagine a world where those experiencing a mental health crisis have easier access to proper care than they do to an instrument of death. 

Our faith requires us to strive for such realities. May we, as a community, be a resource to each other as we take on this work.

Let us pray:

O God who Remembers, we hold before you all who have died from the plague of gun violence in our land. We remember those who have taken their lives with a gun, those who have died in school shootings and mass shootings, those who have died by a gun in the course of an argument or from abuse or by accident or during the commission of a crime. We lift our voices in sorrow and frustration knowing that every life is infinitely valuable to you. Receive all who have died into the arms of your mercy, bless those who mourn with the hope of eternal life, and strengthen our hearts and our arms to bring an end to this scourge. This we pray in the name of the one who overcame the power of death, your son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

From “Prayer Service of Lament for Gun Violence” -Bishops United Against Gun Violence

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Noah Van Niel
The Rev. Jared Grant
The Rev. Katie Beth Miksa 
The Rev. Vince Connery
The Rev. Jess Stribling

Gun Violence Statistics

National Statistics:

• Americans are 25x more likely to be shot and killed than others in high-income countries. (Source: bradyunited.org)
• On average, 327 people are shot everyday in the United States, and roughly 117 will die due to those injuries. (Source: bradyunited.org)
• 23 minors are shot everyday in the United States. (Source: bradyunited.org)
• Statistics on types of shootings (Source: bradyunited.org)
  • 60% of shooting deaths are by suicide
  • 37% of shooting deaths are by homicide 
  • Only 1% of shooting deaths are mass shootings
• 57% of teenagers, and 60% of their parents, were worried about the possibility of a shooting at their school. (Source: pewresearch.org)

Hampton Roads Statistics:

• Firearm deaths are the leading cause of death for Children in Virginia (and Nationally). (Source: pilotonline.com)
• 21 children and adolescents were killed by guns in Hampton Roads last year, which accounts for more than a third of Virginian children killed by guns in that time period. (Source: pilotonline.com) Of those deaths:
  • 4 were under age 10
  • 5 were between age 10-14
  • 12 were between age 15-17
• 82 children and adolescents in 2023 were treated for firearm related injuries in Hampton Roads emergency departments. (Source: pilotonline.com)
• WAVY Gun Violence Tracker