March 10, 2013

The recent shooting of children in an elementary school classroom with a legal, military-style assault weapon has deeply touched our hearts and awakened us to our obligation to do what we can to prevent the mass murder of our children from ever happening again.

As citizens and Quakers we are asking ourselves how we can help promote a culture of respect and compassion to replace a culture that allows and even encourages the kind of violence that can lead to such tragedies as Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine.

We urge you as our representative to do your part to promote our well-being and safety by making illegal the buying and selling of weapons that make mass murder possible.  We urge you to use your influence and your vote to ban military-style assault weapons and the high-capacity magazines that accompany them.  We urge you to vote to require universal background checks to help keep guns out of the hands of those who might kill the innocent.

The Minute was sent in a letter to North Carolina congressional representatives and to local newspapers.