Gun Violence Prevention

Toward a More Peaceful Future: An Ohio Council of Churches Policy Statement on Gun Violence Prevention

Adopted December 19, 2025

As the Ohio Council of Churches — a 105-year-old statewide body uniting 17 denominations as a movement of Jesus Christ for unity, justice, and peace — we come together in lament. Since 2022, at the request of the former Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, we have committed ourselves to the work of gun violence prevention in our communities. Today we grieve the countless lives lost — in 2023 alone, 46,728 people in the United States died by firearms, an average of one death every 11 minutes, and here in Ohio nearly 690 lives were taken by homicide, over 1,000 by suicide, and dozens of children and youth whose futures were cut short. This grief is not abstract for us: members of our own Council have been directly affected by gun violence, and so we hold all who mourn in prayer before the God who is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).

Biblical Foundations

The OCC stands united against gun violence because of our belief that human life is sacred. This core belief forms the bedrock of our anti-gun violence stance. It is based on the following biblical principles:

• The sanctity of human life (Genesis 1:26)

• Love of neighbor (Matthew 22:39)

• Peace and nonviolence (Matthew 5:9)

• Social Justice bringing God’s shalom into being (Micah 6:8)

Weaknesses in Current Ohio Law

As followers of Christ, we cannot separate our call to do justice from the urgent need to examine the policies shaping daily life in our state. Ohio’s current firearm laws contain serious weaknesses that place children, families, and whole communities at risk. Naming these gaps is a first step in our witness for peace.

• No universal background checks: Private sales and transfers are not required to go through background checks, creating loopholes.

• No permit required to purchase firearms: Handguns, rifles, and shotguns can be purchased without a state permit or license.

• Permit less /constitutional carry (since 2022): Adults 21+ may carry concealed handguns without a permit, training, or background check beyond federal minimums.

• Age restrictions limited: No comprehensive minimum age for possession in all circumstances; only certain restrictions on sales (under 18 for long guns, under 21 for handguns).

• Weak safe-storage/child access laws: Ohio lacks strong requirements to secure firearms from children or unauthorized users, despite firearms being the leading cause of death for Ohio youth.

• Preemption of local authority: Cities and counties are barred from passing stricter gun laws tailored to local violence conditions.

• Limited crime-gun tracing/enforcement: Gaps in resources for law enforcement to trace guns and enforce prohibitions.

• Public health & equity concerns: Weaker regulations interact with systemic inequities (poverty, racism, disinvestment) to magnify risks in certain communities.

Legislative Recommendations

We call upon Ohio’s lawmakers and leaders to enact evidence-based policies proven to save lives:

• Require universal background checks on all firearm sales, and to close loopholes that allow firearms to be obtained without oversight.

• Ban assault rifles and kits that change guns into automatic weapons, including high capacity magazines.

• Require safe storage and locking devices for guns to protect children, households, and those with mental illnesses.

• Require firearms safety training for all concealed- and open-carry permits in Ohio.

• Enact red-flag laws and extreme risk protection orders that empower families and courts to temporarily remove firearms from those at imminent risk of harming themselves or others.

• Strengthen local control over gun laws (state legislators can now override local laws).

• Support community-based violence prevention programs, trauma-informed care for survivors, and expanded access to mental health services.

Congregational Recommendations

We call upon Ohio’s congregational members and leaders to:

• Publicly declare our churches as gun-free sacred spaces, posting signage where appropriate.

• Make sure our own guns are safely stored and locked so that no others (in or out of the household) can access them.

• Participate in and lead nonviolence and peacemaking training.

• Engage our youth and families in conversations about conflict resolution, mental health, and gun safety.

• Observe national awareness days (e.g., Wear Orange weekend, Gun Violence Awareness Month) to raise visibility in our communities.

• Educate our congregations by hosting forums, Bible studies, and film screenings on the moral and public health impacts of gun violence.

• Advocate with legislators by writing letters, calling representatives, and hosting town halls in our church spaces.

• Host prayer vigils, memorial services, and liturgies of lament to honor victims of gun violence in our communities.

• Build partnerships with local organizations (schools, neighborhood associations, and public health groups) working on violence prevention.

• Organize safe-storage awareness events (partner with law enforcement, hospitals, and nonprofits to distribute gun locks and safes).

• Promote “Guns to Gardens” initiatives, where unwanted firearms are safely dismantled and repurposed into garden tools or art.

• Offer pastoral care and support groups for families and survivors of gun violence, integrating trauma-informed ministry.

Conclusion: Our Commitment and Our Prayer

Our advocacy on this subject stems from our personal pain as faith leaders who have had to attempt to comfort families affected and eulogize the victim. We pray the day comes soon when we no longer have to bury our parents, children, siblings, and friends whose lives have been cut short by gun violence. Therefore, we invite every judicatory of the Ohio Council of Churches to endorse this statement, to join a dedicated task group on gun violence prevention, and to encourage their congregations to take action in their local communities. Together, we can transform our grief into witness. It is our prayer that God’s abundance, safety, and shalom will be realized in our lifetimes. Amen.

Bibliography

Associated Press. “Judge: Ohio Can’t Bar Cincinnati from Regulating Guns.” AP.News, March 2023. https://apnews.com/article/a5f5a92e2f81810669dd195110b52eca.

Botnick Law Firm. “Ohio Gun Laws.” The.Botnick.Law.Firm. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://www.botnicklawfirm.com/ohio-gun-laws/.

Buchanan, Anna Staver. “DeWine Signs Law Removing Training, Background Check, Permitting Requirement to Conceal Carry.” Ohio.Capital.Journal, March 15, 2022. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/03/15/dewine-signs-law-removing-training-background-check-permitting-requirement-to-conceal-carry/.

Everytown for Gun Safety. “Ohio Gun Laws.” Everytown.Research.and.Policy. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/ohio/.

FindLaw. “Ohio Gun Control Laws.”

FindLaw. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://www.findlaw.com/state/ohio-law/ohio-gun-control-laws.html.

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Background Check Procedures in Ohio.” Giffords. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/background-check-procedures-in-ohio/.

“Child Access Prevention and Safe Storage in Ohio.” Giffords. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/child-access-prevention-and-safe-storage-in-ohio/.

Health Policy Institute of Ohio. Social.Drivers.of.Violence.and.Crime.in.Ohio¡ Columbus: HPIO, 2021. https://www.healthpolicyohio.org/files/publications/cjandhealthsocialdriversviolencecrimefinal.pdf.

National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. “Ohio Gun Laws.” NRA‗ILA. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-gun-laws/ohio/.

Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services. Report.on.NICS.and.Gun.Violence.in.Ohio¡ Columbus: Ohio Department of Public Safety, 2021. https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/ocjs.ohio.gov/links/CJS0057.pdf.

Introducing Pastors and Laity Advancing Nonviolence (P.L.A.N.)

One team. One goal. A whole lot of support.

The Ohio Council of Churches Gun Violence Prevention (OCCGVP) efforts continue moving forward! Here are some examples of our work:

+ On Monday, April 7, the OCC's Pastors and Laity Advancing Nonviolence (PLAN) initiative, in partnership with Certified Nonviolent Communications Trainer Tom Carlisi, MA, will unveil “Building Peace in the Community,” a six-session online peacemaking, violence prevention, and conflict resolution program in Columbus.

+ On Tuesday, April 8, the OCCGVP Team will receive a legislative briefing on Ohio House Bill 46, the Red Flag bill that if enacted could potentially reduce gun violence by placing important restrictions on gun ownership. We soon share updated HB 46 information with you. https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/oh/136/bills/OHB00014055/#overview

+ We recently made the news when speaking out against Ohio Senate Bill 59 which would remove sales tax from firearms and offer manufacturers tax incentives.

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/politics/ohio-bill-would-eliminate-sales-tax-for-guns-and-ammunition/

+ The OCC submitted an amicus brief to the Ohio Supreme Court in the case of Doe v. City of Columbus. The case involved an injunction granted by the trial court enjoining enforcement of two recently passed city ordinances that prohibited the possession of certain "high capacity magazines", and prohibited negligent storage of a firearm at residence when the person knows or reasonably should know a minor can gain access to it. The City's effort to pursue an immediate appeal was rejected by the appellate court. The OCC wrote in support of the City's right to immediately appeal, arguing that preventing enforcement of the ordinances while the case worked its way through the courts would likely result in death and injuries, particularly to children, which constituted irreparable harm. The case was argued on March 11 and we are awaiting a ruling.

As long as gun violence continues to alter Ohio lives and communities, the OCCGVP Team will work creatively and faithfully to develop and share gun violence prevention resources. However, to do this, we need your support. Please commit to sending a monthly gift of $10 to help cover the OCC's GVP and operational expenses. (Donate here) All contributions are tax-deductible as the Ohio Council of Churches is a 501c3 organization.

We envision a future with less violence, and many more abundant, flourishing lives! Please invest in this vision by sending a monthly gift of $10 to the Ohio Council of Churches beginning today. (Donate here)

Action Steps to Prevent Gun Violence

1. Register and then vote gun violence prevention.

2. Contact your school board to oppose guns in schools.

3. If there is a gun in your home, store it unloaded & locked up.

4. Divest from guns – don’t spend with companies that support the gun industry – make sure your money isn’t funding gun violence.

5. Contact your national, state and local elected officials by phone, letter, or on their Facebook or Twitter page.

6. Submit a letter to the editor about gun violence prevention.

7. Sponsor a voter registration day – resource www.lwvohio.org.

Ohio Council of Churches Gun Violence

Prevention Resource Packet

“What Churches Can Do About Gun Violence.”

A Treatise by the Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr.

Executive Director, The Ohio Council of Churches

Behind every act of gun violence is a web of stories of people’s lives that were forever altered by gun mayhem. Here are a few snippets of my story.

When I was 12, my mother was shot and seriously injured by an estranged husband inside of a car he was driving. Fortunately, she survived this vicious act of domestic violence. Twenty-four years later, in 1997, my younger sister was shot in her home by an unknown assailant. Hours later, she succumbed to her injuries.

In May of 2023, a 21-year-old cousin who I never had the pleasure of meeting was shot to death during a dispute with another young man with a gun.

As a pastor, I presided over funeral services for two congregants who were shot to death in their communities. One victim was a 17-year-old young man who was shot while standing on the porch of his house. The assailant used an assault rifle to destroy the body I had baptized just one year earlier.

While preparing this treatise for release, a disturbed man with an assault rifle killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.

These brief yet painful accounts illustrate the fact that at any time and in any place, our lives, and those of the people we love, can be forever altered by the ongoing menace of gun violence.

As a Christian, I believe it is important for the church to go on the record as believing gun violence is not consistent with the will or vision of God for humanity as made known through Jesus Christ. Here is why: A good number of people, including many Christians, believe every death, even when brought about by murder, is pre-determined by God and therefore consistent with God’s will. Many try to make sense of these violent deaths with expressions such as, “When it’s your time to die, you will die no matter where you are,” while others find comfort during tragic moments by proclaiming, “Everything happens for a reason.”

While I freely admit that I do not understand the mysteries behind life and death, I believe that “reason” behind gun violence is not linked to divine intent but the very real presence of personal and structural evil in the world that enables angry, violent, troubled, and hate-filled persons to gain access to guns.

If left unchecked, the popular yet perplexing excuses for occurrences of gun violence can lead to feelings of numbness, powerlessness, and helplessness, even among people of faith. Maybe this is why so many of us think the only helpful things we can offer to gun violence victims and survivors are thoughts and prayers.

To be sure, I value warm thoughts, I believe in the power of prayer, and I am convinced that God can and does comfort those who mourn. Yet, for us to conclude our concern over gun violence with thoughts and prayers may say more about our social fatigue and sense of hopelessness than it does about the power and courage that churches can receive when they trust God’s vision for humanity and allow it to function as the GPS for their lives and ministries.

In my view, scripture refutes the theologically confusing explanations I mentioned above while providing us with a vision for how we must live if we intend to have a future worth striving for. In the Gospel of John 10:10, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that people may have life, and have it abundantly” (NRSV).

This abundant, flourishing life is not just a promise for a heavenly afterlife, but a projection of the way life should be right here and right now. Stealing, killing, and destruction of life – this is what thieves produce. Abundant, flourishing life is what God provides.

I am convinced that as the church internalizes this vision of abundant, flourishing life for all, it will be provisioned by God to mount a hopeful and credible challenge to gun violence. It will be equipped and authorized to teach adherents and non-adherents alike that the attributes of this vision are not restricted to the heavenly realm, but ways of life we can realize on earth, as they currently exist in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

Along with such an abundant, flourishing life vision, we church folks receive Holy Spirit power to marshal our God-given talents and abilities toward the creation a culture of non-violence and peacemaking in our congregations and communities.

This, my friends, is how I view evangelism. It is not simply about getting people into heaven; it is also about getting heaven into people.

This vision, should we choose to accept it, would lead us to take some bold steps that have the potential to prevent gun violence. Here are some examples:

1. Preach messages about nonviolence and peacemaking;

2. Build Christian education programs that emphasize nonviolence and peacemaking as a way of living for adults and especially for children in congregations and their communities;

3. Raise our voices in support of legislation that honors life by enacting “common sense gun laws,” including universal background checks, that make it harder for people with mental illnesses and histories of violence and hate to get and use guns;

4. Speak out against statutes such as those that make it lawful for people to have concealed weapons on their person with no demand or obligation to disclose their possession even to law enforcement personnel;

5. Join the call for a ban on high-capacity assault rifles that are intended only to kill as many people as possible, as fast as possible;

6. Ask all gun owners to safely store and lock their firearms to prevent children and persons with suicidal thoughts from easily accessing them. (Churches could acquire gun locks and give them to gun owners.); and

7. Debunk the myth that gun possession makes us safer – it does not.

I believe these measures to be clear and consistent with the abundant, flourishing life agenda of God made known through Jesus Christ. The writer of Proverbs tells us, “Where there is no vision, people perish.” People are perishing right now due to gun violence. No neighborhood is safe and no community is immune to gun terror. I, therefore, believe where there is a life-affirming vision, people flourish as they are less likely to use a gun to solve their issues. Amen.

Below is a short list of faith-based gun violence prevention resources:

From the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

https://diocesela.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/EDLAgunviolencepreventiontoolkit.pdf

From the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

https://www.elca.org/60days

From Faith in Public Life

https://www.faithinpubliclife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Gun-violence-toolkit-2.pdf

From Pax Christi

https://paxchristimdcb.org/Interfaith-GVP-Toolkit#:~:text=The%20toolkit%20has%20five%20main,through%20advocacy%20and%20enhancing%20the

From the Presbyterian Church USA

https://www.pcusa.org/resource/gun-violence-prevention-congregational-toolk-21231/

From the United Church of Christ

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D97WuoNPs0BSxQKfdjclQpaQAc1wVQdb3wB9wZGIwp4/edit

From the United Methodist Church

https://www.umcjustice.org/what-we-care-about/peace-with-justice/gun-violence-prevention

Below is a short list of resources for peacemaking and nonviolent conflict resolution:

From the Ashland Center for Nonviolence

https://www.ashland.edu/ashland-center-nonviolence

From the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America

https://www.bpfna.org/From the Church of the Brethrenhttps://www.onearthpeace.org/

From the Disciples Peace Fellowship

https://www.disciplespeace.org/

From Fellowship of Reconciliation

https://forusa.org/educate/

From Guidepost Montessori

https://www.guidepostmontessori.com/blog/elementary-series-peace-table-means-conflict-resolution

From the James Lawson Institute

https://jameslawsoninstitute.org/

From the Mennonite Central Committee

https://mcc.org/resources/fear-not-creating-plan-respond-active-violence

The Ohio Council of Churches Strongly Opposes HB 51

The Ohio Council of Churches strongly opposes HB 51, “The 2ND Amendment Preservation Act.“ This bill, if enacted, would immediately be challenged as unconstitutional, because it would reject any past, present, or future Federal firearms regulations that Ohio deems to be in violation of Ohio citizens' rights to keep and bear arms.

Secondly, it would allow an abuser convicted of domestic violence, or under a restraining order, to be deemed a “Qualifying Adult,” who could carry a concealed firearm without a permit. ORC SEC. 2923.111(A)(2)(B).

Third, it would expose Ohio political subdivisions, who employ law enforcement officers, to civil suit and fines of $50,000 per incident for attempting to enforce Federal gun regulations in Ohio.

Fourth, it will fuel anti-government sentiment and encourage violence.

The bill is currently in a House Committee. We encourage people of faith and goodwill to call their state representatives and ask them to oppose this bill. Use this link to find your state representative: https://findmydistrict.ohiosos.gov/.

Despite Ohio’s gun homicide rate increasing 94% over the last decade, our lawmakers passed a dangerous Shoot First law, and eliminated the requirement that a person get a permit and safety training before carrying a concealed gun in public. Lawmakers also passed a dangerous law which allows K-12 schools to arm teachers. “We are hopeful that our elected officials will listen to the majority of our church members who believe in common sense gun safety like safe storage, background checks, and Extreme Risk Laws,” stated the Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches.