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Personal Liberty Digest
Freedom Outpost
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Freedom Outpost
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Biden asks clergy to make moral argument on guns
By | Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden wants pastors, rabbis and nuns to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.
Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities
— Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the
faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an
arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun laws in the wake of December's schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.
But don't expect a vote any time soon.
"The conversation presumed the vote would happen first on immigration," said Rabbi David Saperstein,
who directs the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. "That seemed
to be the back-and-forth on both sides — that immigration was a key
priority right now. When that vote took place, it would be an
opportunity to refocus on this."
Although momentum on gun control
stalled in the Senate last month, Biden has insisted the issue is very
much alive, and has been meeting regularly with gun violence victims and
law enforcement to build support for a second go at legislation to
expand background checks,
improve mental health care and take other steps to reduce gun violence.
Monday's session reflects an attempt to broaden the coalition calling
for new gun laws to include a wide array of religious groups — including
evangelicals and conservative faith communities.
Lingering concerns from some participants illustrated the ongoing challenge the administration faces in winning support for the proposals, even though Biden and Obama regularly tout polls suggesting they enjoy broad support. Some participants raised questions about whether background checks could lead to a national gun registry or whether mental health provisions would be used to create a list of individuals permanently banned from obtaining guns.
"There were some very powerful evangelical leaders in the room who needed to be reassured," said Pastor Michael McBride of the PICO National Network, a faith-based organizing network.
Citing what he described as misinformation from the National Rifle Association and others, Biden said the renewed push for gun control must correct misconceptions about what the proposals do and don't do, participants said. He asked clergy to keep up the pressure and to reframe the debate for their followers in moral terms.
A spokeswoman for Biden declined to comment on the meeting. But Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, said a diverse spectrum of denominations and religious orders were represented. She said they included evangelical leaders Richard Cizik and Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, as well as Sister Marge Clark of Network, a Catholic group.
___
Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.
___
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
http://news.yahoo.com/biden-asks-clergy-moral-argument-guns-001723262.html
Breaking News from Western Journalism
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