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Protesters outside gun store: What do we want? Sign the code. What do we want? Sign the code.<\/em><\/p>\n LUCKY SEVERSON<\/strong>, correspondent: This is a rare site these days\u2014protesters outside a gun shop. It\u2019s called Delia\u2019s, and it\u2019s in North Philadelphia. The organizers are religious leaders from many different faiths. There are also people of faith protesting the protesters, like Bill Grumbine.<\/p>\n BILL GRUMBINE<\/strong>: Well, I am not here to demonstrate against the gun store. I\u2019m here to show support for the gun store, and I always have a Bible with me.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: Both sides say gun violence is a moral issue, and both rely on their religious views to support their opposing positions. Pastor David Tatgenhorst and Bishop Dwayne Royster say they\u2019re not against guns or gun ownership but can no longer keep silent about gun violence.<\/p>\n PASTOR DAVID TATGENHORST<\/strong> (St. Luke United Methodist Church, Bryn Mawr, Penn.): Our coalition of pastors and rabbis and different religious leaders has just become so appalled that we\u2019re so tired of burying young people and policemen. It\u2019s just senseless what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: So these pastors who have preached against gun violence from the pulpit have joined an interfaith group called Heeding God\u2019s Call in cities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and they have taken their message to the streets. It\u2019s aimed at gun store owners, and it asks them to sign a code of conduct designed to stop so-called \u201cstraw purchases.\u201d That\u2019s where a private citizen buys guns with the intent of reselling them on the street to someone who cannot legally purchase firearms.<\/p>\n ROYSTER<\/strong>: Whenever they sell a gun through a straw purchase, there\u2019s potentially a body at the end of that gun.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: The same code of conduct was signed by Walmart, the largest seller of firearms in the country.<\/p>\n ROYSTER<\/strong>: What we\u2019re asking the gun shop owners to do is to do something moral and ethical in terms of their behavior, by being responsible not just for making money for themselves, but to be responsible for the community in which they find themselves, to make sure that guns go to only those who legally have a right to own them and to be able to use them.<\/p>\n TATGENHORST<\/strong>: The judge listened to this, and she acquitted us. Our argument was that we were trying to prevent a greater harm by breaking a smaller law.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: A few months later, Colosimo\u2019s lost its license to sell guns, a victory for Heeding God\u2019s Call.<\/p>\n PASTOR RUSS TENHOFF<\/strong> (Safe Harbor Ministry, Baltimore): I already have the Glock. I already have the 1911.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: When the Baltimore chapter of Heeding God\u2019s Call tried to close down Clyde\u2019s Sports Shop after complaints of selling guns to straw purchasers, Pastor Russ Tenoff was there to defend the store. One of the owners, Bill Blamberg, says he won\u2019t sign the code because it violates his customers\u2019 privacy. But he knows some people get guns who shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n BILL BLAMBERG<\/strong> (Clyde\u2019s Sports Shop): And I\u2019ve had this happen a couple times. A guy comes in, you know he\u2019s got a police record. He can\u2019t buy one, right? He looks at this gun. It\u2019s $549. He says, \u201cI\u2019ll give you a thousand dollars if I can take it today.\u201d Now I\u2019m not saying some dealers don\u2019t do that, but Clyde\u2019s don\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n TENHOFF<\/strong>: If we could eliminate all guns I would be all for that. But the fact of the matter is until Jesus puts his feet on the Mount of Olives and then peace reigns over the whole planet, we\u2019re going to have to protect ourselves and even protect the people around us, and if the criminals have guns, then we need to have them.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: One thing is certain: there is no shortage of guns in the US\u2014as many as 300 million at the latest count. In some circles, owning a gun appears to be the patriotic thing to do. For those who predicted a rash of gun control laws after the Tucson shooting\u2014barely a whisper. A few weeks after the shooting, the governor of Utah signed a bill proclaiming the first official state gun, and the University of Texas is about to become the second major school after the University of Utah to allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus. Clyde Wilcox is a professor of government at Georgetown University and author of several books on subjects like gun control and the Christian right.<\/p>\n PROFESSOR CLYDE WILCOX<\/strong> (Georgetown University): The interesting thing is we\u2019ve come to the point where the debate is over whether you can carry a weapon in a bar, in a church, in a gymnasium, which were the places in the past where we thought maybe you don\u2019t want to have a gun because fights can break out or people can become inflamed. So it\u2019s really on the edge that we\u2019re having this whole discussion now.<\/p>\n TENHOFF<\/strong>: I have been a man who has turned the other cheek. You\u2019re talking to a man who has been jumped by gangs and beat. You\u2019re talking to a man who\u2019s been in several knife fights. You\u2019re talking to a man who has been shot at, and you\u2019re talking to a man who has grown up in the drug-infested violence of this area, and I have turned the other cheek and I have taken beatings. But I\u2019m not going to let my little boy suffer violence. I\u2019m going to act. I\u2019m not going to let my wife be raped. I\u2019m going to act.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: A number of mainline churches have had longstanding positions in favor of some kind of gun control, but for the most part churches have been noticeably quiet. In fact, an increasing number of pastors are now speaking out in support of the Second Amendment, saying it was inspired by God.<\/p>\n WILCOX<\/strong>: I talk to a fair number of pastors who kind of take a fundamentalist reading of the Second Amendment the way they take a fundamentalist reading of the Bible.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: Pastor Tatgenhorst says he understands why more religious leaders haven\u2019t been more outspoken about gun control.<\/p>\n TATGENHORST<\/strong>: It happens, and I know that I have had colleagues who are scared to talk about guns. They\u2019re afraid that people in the pews will object to that.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: Rick Hellberg is a member of Pastor Tatgenhorst\u2019s church. He supports his pastor\u2019s position against gun violence but, unlike the pastor, he sees the Second Amendment as sacred. His rationale is quite common among opponents of government-sponsored gun control.<\/p>\n RICK HELLBERG<\/strong>: If part of my right to hold a gun is to protect myself from the potential tyranny of a government or a standing army\u2014if that\u2019s the case, then I should probably be able to be armed almost as well as those standing armies are. The NRA [National Rifle Association] takes the position that if we give an inch Washington will take a mile.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: But this isn\u2019t coming from Washington. It\u2019s coming from faith leaders who are trying to do what they say Washington and state governments haven\u2019t done\u2014curb gun violence.<\/p>\n ROYSTER<\/strong>: We\u2019re not trying to prevent their business. We’re not trying to prevent them from selling guns. We\u2019re not trying to prevent people who have a legal right to possess guns from possessing them. We just want to make sure they don\u2019t get into the hands of the wrong people.<\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: While religious voices against gun control are getting louder, so are those on the other side…<\/p>\n Protesters: Sign the code!<\/em><\/p>\n SEVERSON<\/strong>: …who think that something needs to be done to stop the killing.<\/p>\n For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly I’m Lucky Severson in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n![\"post02b-pastorsandguns\"](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/04\/post02b-pastorsandguns.jpg\")
BISHOP DWAYNE ROYSTER<\/strong> (Living Water United Church of Christ, North Philadelphia): The numbers of handgun-related crimes and murders in the city of Philadelphia is larger than that of most industrialized countries.<\/p>\n![\"post03-pastorsandguns\"](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/04\/post03-pastorsandguns.jpg\")
SEVERSON<\/strong>: Heeding God\u2019s Call staged regular protests, sit-ins, and prayer vigils at this Philadelphia gun store called Colosimo\u2019s. The interfaith ministers were responding to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms study showing that over 400 guns from Colosimo\u2019s had been used in crimes. In fact, 12 interfaith ministers including Tatgenhorst were arrested for obstruction and conspiracy and spent a night in jail. Then they pleaded their case to the judge.<\/p>\n![\"post04-pastorsandguns\"](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/04\/post04-pastorsandguns.jpg\")
SEVERSON<\/strong>: Pastor Tenhoff leads the Safe Harbor Ministry in a rough Baltimore neighborhood. He opposes Heeding God\u2019s Call\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n![\"post05-pastorsandguns\"](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/04\/post05-pastorsandguns.jpg\")
ROYSTER<\/strong>: Jesus ministered to the most marginalized, and he didn\u2019t do it with a gun. He didn\u2019t do it with violence. He did it with love.<\/p>\n![\"post06-pastorsandguns\"](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/04\/post06-pastorsandguns.jpg\")
WILCOX<\/strong>: Well, the mainline congregations are declining. Their populations are aging, and so the question is what issues do you want to take on that might possibly divide your congregation? Would you take a risk of losing 10 percent of your members in a declining church by taking the prophetic stand about gun control at a time when gun control laws are probably not going to be stiffened?<\/p>\n