Gun control forum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information: Rev. Lauren Smith, 603-436-4762

South Church honors one-year anniversary of Newtown shootings

            PORTSMOUTH,
NH – It will soon be one year since 20 children and six adults were shot to
death by a lone gunman at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. To
honor their lives and to further the discussion about gun control, South Church
will be holding two special events on the one-year anniversary Saturday, Dec.
14.

            The church
begins the day at 9:35 a.m. – when the first casualties were reported at the
school. Social justice associate Rich DiPentima will ring the church’s bell 28
times, once for each victim, ending at 9:49 a.m., when the final shot is
believed to have been fired.

            At 10 a.m.,
the church will sponsor a gun control forum to which all members of the public
are invited. Panelists include Hampton state Rep. Elaine Ahearn, who has filed
background check legislation; Janet Groat of Moms Demand Action; Judy Stadtman
of Projects for a Safer Community; and Rev. Lauren Smith, South Church
minister. DiPentima, a former state legislator, will act as moderator.

The forum is being sponsored by the
South Church Social Justice Associates. Rev. Smith said she anticipates that
all who attend the forum will be respectful of the church space and respectful
in their comments.

            According
to Smith, the forum was a natural extension of the work of the social justice
group at South Church, which has made gun control issues a primary focus of its
work in the coming months. She said although gun control is not always a
comfortable topic for some, the church wants to take a lead on this important
issue.

            “We may
sometimes be tempted to accommodate the unacceptable — to accept the deaths of
those 20 children last year as a terrible but random occurrence about which we
can do nothing, to accept the tens of thousands of gun-related deaths in our
country each year as the sad but necessary by-product of cherished
constitutional rights. But we can do better,” she said.

            Smith said
when one “digs below the rhetoric,” there is simply a problem to be solved by
finding common ground.

“We’ve corrected course in the past
as a nation and we can do it again,” she said. “It begins by getting
informed.  It begins with productive and civil discourse across
difference. We're looking forward to offering our sanctuary for that important
conversation.”