We have a TREMENDOUS opportunity this month to dramatically reduce gun violence — but we need your help now! It’s time to stand up with more than 1,300 faith congregations across our state!
On Stand-Up Sunday, Jan. 31st, we’ll honor the Emanuel AME 9 by attuning our hearts and voices to address the epidemic . . . and by calling for moral, nonpartisan solutions that don’t threaten the 2nd Amendment right to lawfully own guns.
Stand-Up Sunday — endorsed by the SC Christian Action Council and supported by the bishops and leaders of nearly every denomination — is when we all stand up for the 9:
- The 9 killed by a gun purchased without a completed background check at Emanuel AME.
- The 9 citizens of our state killed by guns every 5 days.
- The 9 out of 10 South Carolinians who want background checks on all gun purchases (Public Policy Polling, 2015), along with 85% of gun owners nationally.
Standing up is more vital now than ever after the president’s executive action because:
- This isn’t a partisan issue: 90% of South Carolinians want background checks on all gun sales.
- The funding’s not guaranteed. The president’s recent executive action hinges largely on funding that will likely get tied up in Congress, leaving the fate of thorough background checks in the hands of each state.
- Our voices are crucial! Enforcement will likely be neglected or impeded in a state if its legislators and enforcement agencies conclude that its citizens don’t care about background checks and the epidemic of gun violence.
- We must be better neighbors. South Carolina is the sixth-leading supplier of crime guns to other states, so we cannot drag our feet in this effort.
We know it’s time to act when churches are hiring armed security to guard their congregations, when our teachers and children are hiding in lockdown drills to prepare for a gunman on the loose in our schools, and when 90% of crime guns are being sold by 5% of dealers. That can happen only when moral people are silent.
On Stand-Up Sunday, faith leaders will:
- Address gun violence and the importance of our faith communities making their voices heard on this moral and public-health crisis.
- Encourage congregants to sign letters to legislators asking for background checks on all gun sales as they exit the service. Find names and addresses at scstatehouse.gov/legislatorssearch.php for your district’s state senator and representative.
- Ask for members to “stand up” for the Emanuel AME 9 by committing to travel to the State House for a rally when our state legislature is about to vote on background checks. You may wish to begin putting out feelers now for those volunteers and acknowledge them on Stand-Up Sunday. Send names and email addresses of your volunteers to standupsundaySC@gmail.com so they
can be notified of the date.
Faith leaders, of course, can fashion Stand-Up Sunday in the way that’s most fitting for their churches. To learn more and watch a brief, inspiring video about Stand-Up Sunday, please visit our website at standupsundaySC.org. Email any questions to standupsundaySC@gmail.com.
Thanks for taking this vital step to keep guns from falling into the wrong hands and for making South Carolina a safer place to live, learn and worship!
Stand-Up Sunday is hosted by Gun Sense SC, a grassroots group of South Carolinians that formed after the Emanuel AME killings to reduce gun violence through nonpartisan solutions. Visit us at
GunSenseSC.org. Gun Sense SC: saving lives, preserving rights.
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