Episcopal Doctrine on Gun Control

The Episcopal Church is often mischaracterized as not having doctrinal expectations on issues. This is actually not true. In the Episcopal Church we have a very high theology of personal conscience. This means that amidst the doctrinal expectations of the church individuals, especially laity, are given an exceptional amount of freedom in regard to their personal belief and practice. When the Episcopal church convenes as a council of the church, General Convention, we do make statements of expectations of where our church stands on an issue. This includes a long history of statements regarding Gun Control.

The first such statement is 1976-C052:

Resolved, That the 65th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Minneapolis, September 11-23, 1976, urge the Congress of the United States to adopt effective hand gun legislation as promptly as possible and that this resolution be communicated to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senators Birch Bayh and James Eastland of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, and to the President of the National Rifle Association; and be it further

Resolved, That this General Convention urge all citizens to support federal, state, and local legislation aimed at controlling the sale and use of hand guns.

It is important to realize that this first resolution dates back forty years, long before any current political controversy or the heightened issue of regular mass shootings. The Episcopal Church, then, has a long standing history of seeking gun control legislation. The next decade did not see the changes longed for by the Episcopal Church and this prompted 1991-B042:

Resolved, That the House of Bishops, meeting in the 70th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, reaffirm its support for sound handgun control legislation, a position first taken in 1976; and be it further

Resolved, That this House of Bishops endorse the so-called Brady Bill now before the Congress of the United States as a first step toward effective handgun control. It is sensible legislation which requires waiting periods and background checks on those persons who wish to purchase handguns; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, appropriate members of Congress and other appropriate government entities.

The Brady Bill became law in 1993 and yet in the next year the General Convention of the Episcopal Church continued to be concerned about issues of gun control with 1994-D019:

Resolved, That the Standing Commission on Peace with Justice extend its study of the sale and spread of armaments by adding to its agenda for the coming triennium (without additional budget expense) a review of existing and pending state and national legislation which seeks to:

1. Limit the manufacture and sale of weapons and ammunition domestically;
2. Strengthen firearms licensing provisions for both sellers and buyers; and
3. Restrict the exportation of weapons and weapon parts from the United States.
4. Tighten restrictions on importation of weapons and weapon parts to the United States.

As things progressed the Episcopal Church's consideration of this issue became broader and we consider gun safety to be more than just gun control, this can be seen at the convention three years later with 1997-D033:

Resolved, That this 72nd General Convention of the Episcopal Church strongly urge the Congress of the United States promptly to pass national legislation that will apply the same quality and safety standards to domestically manufactured hand guns that are currently applied to imported hand guns; and be it further

Resolved, That this Resolution be forwarded to the Office of Government Relations of the Episcopal Church for distribution to the proper Congressional authorities.

Here we have a resolution that is about ensuring the safety and quality of guns brought into this country, an issue one would hope very gun enthusiast would see as important. While wanting to ensure that what guns are in our country are safe the same General Convention continued our petition for further gun control legislation.

Resolved, That this 72nd General Convention, through the Office of Government Relations, urge the Congress of the Unites States to increase restrictions on the sale, ownership and use of firearms, particularly "Saturday night specials" (described as short-barreled, four inches or shorter, easily concealed hand gun); and be it further

Resolved, That legislation to ban carrying concealed firearms be encouraged; and be it further

Resolved, That Congress be urged to adopt legislation requiring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to develop regulations to delineate appropriate safety standards for use of firearms, and circumstances under which firearms may be used and to monitor and enforce compliance with said safety standards.

At this point we are looking at decades of consistent resolutions around this issue coming from our General Conventions. This stance existed, solidly, in the Episcopal Church before the current era of mass shootings began. The next general convention, three years later, would be in a post-Columbine world. These events would prompt three resolutions regarding gun control.

2000-D004

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention express deep concern about the repeated use of easily available hand guns and assault weapons by and against children and call upon Episcopalians to seek ways to develop community strategies and create sanctuaries for our children, so that all may come to identify and value themselves and others as the precious children of God that they are, and that they may come to know peace in their lives and to create peace for future generations.

2000-B007

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention request members of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America to acknowledge that the violence in our communities is encouraged and enabled by the presence of guns; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention call upon all members of the church to work intentionally in their several committees, legislatures, and institutions toward the removal of handguns and assault weapons from our homes, other residential communities, and vehicles.

2000-A006

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention urge the appropriate departments and agencies of the U.S. government to prohibit the export of handguns.

Note how 2000-B007 and 2000-D004 shift the conversation away from political legislation and to personal responsibility of individuals to take account of their own personal gun ownership and deeply consider the implications of owning guns. It would be twelve years before the general convention would again look at the issue of gun regulation, when we did, it was in regards to regulation on our church properties with 2012-D003:

Resolved, That the 77th General Convention requests every parish and every diocesan place of work to declare their establishments as Gun Free Zones.

This resolution brought our worship communities across the church to take up some very difficult conversations and process the forever more pressing issue of gun ownership and control. Our most recent General Convention added two more resolutions for our consideration.

2015-C005

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention on the 50th anniversary of the murder of seminarian Jonathan Daniels, urge all legislators at federal, state and local levels to help decrease gun violence by implementing laws that;

1. Require permits to carry concealed weapons and criminal background checks for every gun purchase, including those made at gun shows; and

2. 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; and

3. Ban the importation and manufacture of Full-Auto Conversion kits that convert guns into automatic weapons; and

4. Tighten laws against gun trafficking, and increase penalties for those who engage in "straw purchases" of firearms for ineligible persons; and

5. Prohibit persons from purchasing guns without evidence of gun safety training; and

6. Recognize the impact of existing inheritance laws on the transfer of gun ownership; and

7. Promote funding for research into the prevention and causes of gun violence.

2015-B008

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church support handgun purchaser licensing in order to prevent gun violence and save lives; and be it further

Resolved, That the dioceses of The Episcopal Church be encouraged to advocate for handgun purchaser licensing in their local contexts.

These two resolutions are the strongest made over the past four decades of resolutions considering this subject. They do not, however, represent some new liberalism or politicization of our church's stance on this issue. The Episcopal Church is overwhelmingly in support of exceptionally more robust gun control laws than are currently in use and we have been seeking such to be put in place for nearly half a century.

Now, as stated above, the Episcopal Church does not do much in the way of doctrinal enforcement and we leave much up to personal conscious on any issue including this one. There are many Episcopalians I know who responsibly own guns and often for exceptionally sound reasons of personal safety. They live out their gun ownership as if the expectations sought by the church of our legal code were already in place. 

What then is expected of Episcopalians? We must be knowledgable of the above resolutions and take up personally any requests they make of us. If asked if the Episcopal Church has a doctrine on gun ownership and gun safety it is the prerogative of every Episcopalian to say yes, explain the reality of our resolutions on the subject, and then explain their own conscious regarding the issue. At this point in the crisis we are facing in the United States no Episcopalian should be ignorant of our denomination's long standing expectation on this issue.



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To view these and all resolution of the episcopal church go to: https://www.episcopalarchives.org/e-archives/acts/