Co-Sponsored by Domestic U.S. and Latin America & the Caribbean Workshop Areas

Across the country, faith leaders are playing a critical role in raising public awareness of the horrific impact that gun violence has on our families and building support for common-sense policies that can save lives from gun violence, including background checks and fingerprint licensing of handgun purchasers. The harms of existing lax U.S. gun regulations extend well beyond our borders, enabling traffickers to stream weapons across our southern border, fueling the violence that has killed tens of thousands in Mexico in recent years. In this workshop, panelists will discuss what communities of faith and conscience are doing to advance this bi-national issue. Vincent DeMarco will describe Faiths United To Prevent Gun Violence, a coalition of over 50 national faith groups working on this issue. Eugenio Weigend will discuss the impact of US gun policies in Mexico. Rev. Jim Atwood, with 39 years of working in this arena, will focus on ways to encourage participation in the local faith community. Bob Baskin of the Peace Alliance will describe the Youth Promise Act (HR 1318), which makes an unprecedented investment in evidence-based, locally run prevention & intervention practices that engage and divert at-risk youth proactively, before they slip into a costly cycle of delinquency, crime, violence and incarceration.

Speakers: