Protesters Against Gun Violence Target NRA Offices

The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America is organizing a vigil at the National Rifle Assn. building in Washington to protest the epidemic of gun violence in urban areas.

The vigil is planned for Aug. 27, the day before the fellowship’s 30th anniversary march on Washington, and has garnered the support of two groups, the American Jewish Committee and Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international interfaith organization that has sponsored peace activities around the globe.

“We are planning this public demonstration to highlight the powerful lobbying role played by the NRA in opposing even the most modest gun control legislation,” said Ken Sehested, executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship, in a prepared statement.

Leaders of the vigil plan to request a meeting with the NRA to discuss gun control issues.

The vigil is modeled on the work of the Rev. Albert Gallmon, pastor of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Washington. Gallmon has led an ecumenical coalition, the Committee Against All Violence, in picketing at the NRA building each week this spring.

“We believe the general public is finally ready to confront this special interest,” said Sehested. “We also believe that working on gun control measures can be an effective way to forge multiracial coalitions on the local, regional and national levels.”

At the end of June the American Baptist Churches approved a “statement of concern” that labeled the level of firearms violence in the United States “scandalous” and called on congregations to work at local, state and national levels “for the passage of effective legislative controls and enforcement procedures.”