The Office of Government Relations is tasked with representing official Episcopal Church policies voted on and passed by General Convention or Executive Council, the legislative and governing bodies of the Church. Below is a list of policies related to gun safety and gun reform, with links to the full resolution text hosted by The Archives of The Episcopal Church.
- Support Handgun Purchaser Licensing
- Implement Laws to Decrease Gun Violence, including:
- Permits to carry concealed weapons and criminal background checks for every gun purchase, including those made at gun shows
- Except for the use of military and law enforcement agencies, ban the sale, transfer, importation and manufacture of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
- Tighten laws against gun trafficking, and increase penalties for those who engage in “straw purchases” of firearms for ineligible persons
- Ban the importation and manufacture of Full-Auto Conversion kits that convert guns into automatic weapons
- Prohibit persons from purchasing guns without evidence of gun safety training
- Promote funding for research into the prevention and causes of gun violence
- Urge the appropriate departments and agencies of the U.S. government to prohibit the export of handguns
- Remove handguns and assault weapons from our homes, other residential communities, and vehicles
- Express Concern About Availability of Handguns and Assault Weapons
- Urge Restrictions on Sale, Ownership and Use of Firearms, including:
- Increase restrictions on the sale, ownership and use of firearms, particularly “Saturday night specials”
- That legislation to ban carrying concealed firearms be encouraged
- Develop regulations to delineate appropriate safety standards for use of firearms
- Apply the same quality and safety standards to domestically manufactured hand guns that are currently applied to imported hand guns
- Urge all citizens to support federal, state, and local legislation aimed at controlling the sale and use of hand guns
- Pass comprehensive gun control and safety legislation, restricting children’s access to guns and requiring thorough background checks for new gun purchases
- Allow community-based mental healthcare providers the same opportunities to access federal funding as are currently allowed to providers of physical healthcare
- Urge Episcopalians to examine our own cultural attitudes toward violence through efforts in our own congregations and communities, to repent of our own roles in the glorification and trivialization of violence, and to commit ourselves to another way
- Encourage the study of gun violence as a public health crisis
- Develop a shareholder engagement plan to effect change in gun manufacturing and retail companies
- Declaring Church sites as gun-free zones
- The Sandy Hook Principles