Clergy Members, Community Leaders Meet for Gun Violence Summit

In a crowded room full of clergy members, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh addressed a problem plaguing the country: gun violence.

"Why are roughly 12,000 gun murders in the United States every year? Why are there 18,000 gun suicides? Why are seven children and teens killed by guns every single day?" Walsh said.

Just this year, Boston has seen 23 gun deaths while the country has had multiple school shootings. Hoping to put end to gun violence is this group of clergy members at the Subverting the Gospel of Guns Summit.

"It really is the place of the church to come out of the four walls of the sanctuary and be where the need is," Jeffrey Brown of Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston said.

While these men and women are fighting to gain stricter gun laws, gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, think the opposite. The organization quotes a Gallup poll saying 63 percent of Americans believe that having a gun in the home makes the home a safer place to be.

Reverend Matthew Crebbin of Newtown, Connecticut, the place where a teen shot and killed 20 first graders and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, says he doesn't agree.

"The gun is a tool. It's a tool though that can be very dangerous and we need to have a very appropriate safeguards for our communities to make sure that they are safer," he said.

Reverend Jeffrey Brown has spent countless hours comforting families victim to gun violence. For him, walking the streets and creating change is important for his community.

"I've done my share of funerals and we're at the point now where we need to end the era of violence so that we can celebrate as many weddings and baby dedications," he said. 

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