A lay-led task force at Church of the Dunes in Grand Haven is raising awareness and educating community members about gun violence prevention.
JAMES DEATON
Content Editor
Gun violence is often seen as a problem impacting urban areas only. A group of United Methodists at Church of the Dunes in Grand Haven is making the case that it affects all of us, even those living in rural areas.
Val Martin was moved by the work of the End Gun Violence Michigan movement, a nonpartisan coalition of community, faith, and public health partners that the Michigan Conference joined in 2022. Inspired by their advocacy work, she wanted to find other like-minded justice-seekers in her congregation and do more.
“The ‘thoughts and prayers’ just haven’t been working and aren’t enough,” she admits. So, Val put a call out in her congregation, and a lay-driven gun violence prevention task force of a dozen church members quickly assembled. And the task force is already making great strides.
Collaborating with a similar group at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, the task force has helped plan an annual Silence the Violence March in their community. Silence the Violence was started over 17 years ago by Church of the Messiah, an Episcopal church on Detroit’s east side. The march has spread to two dozen Michigan communities, bringing people together to commemorate the victims of gun violence and raise awareness about the issue.
The task force is also helping to educate parents regarding gun locks and up-to-date information on gun safety laws. New gun violence prevention laws were passed in Michigan and took effect earlier this year. Gun owners are now required to lock firearms in homes where children are present.
Other changes include background checks for all gun sales and the availability of extreme risk protection orders. These new measures have been shown to impact the number of deaths, especially suicides. The gun violence prevention laws were the focus of the Michigan Conference’s Advocacy Day in 2023, where over 300 United Methodists and friends assembled at the State Capitol in Lansing to move hearts and minds on gun safety legislation.
A couple of task force members have a history of working with daycare centers, and they have taken the lead in contacting local daycares and offering their educational services to parents. The task force has assembled safe bag packs for those parents and caregivers who are open to receiving them and learning how to prevent accidental gun violence in their homes.
A safe bag, typically used for medication, has a combination lock and cannot be opened easily. Safe bags can also be used to store ammunition. Inside the safe bag, the task force adds a gun lock and printed materials about Michigan’s new gun laws and how to talk to children about gun violence.
Participating daycare centers are given a sign-up sheet for parents. Daycare centers then contact the task force when they need safe gun packs, and the centers deliver them to the parents. They have already distributed over 150 bags and plan to distribute 500 more.
Val mentions the possibility of the task force educating about other vulnerable populations, such as older adults with dementia, and the need to protect them from accidental gun violence.
“Our congregation is largely made up of retired folks,” she says, “and dementia is not something unknown to us. That’s another group we need to watch out for. What do we do when an adult who has access to firearms starts to display symptoms of dementia?”
The task force is also participating in the Soul Box Project, an art-based, community-building tool for raising awareness of the U.S. gun violence epidemic. They are beginning to make 1,406 soul boxes for a mobile display (1,406 is the average number of deaths due to gun violence in Michigan each year).
Other task force members have used their artistic gifts to create a quilt project memorializing local gun violence victims. The Gun Violence Memorial Quilt represents lives taken by gun violence in the four surrounding counties: Allegan, Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa. Gun violence impacts all Michiganders, including those living in rural areas.
The quilt was the handiwork of Jill Miller and Betty Roberts, two members of Church of the Dunes. St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven had a tree with construction paper leaves representing gun violence victims. This artwork inspired task member Jill, an expert quilter and sewer, to design a quilt with a tree and leaves to hang in the church. She contacted Betty, another church member who is an extraordinary seamstress, and they had it designed and sewn together in no time.
In many ways, the quilt is a prayer in physical form, a painful reminder of the lives lost to gun violence, but beautifully displayed with life-affirming symbols of healing and hope.
The quilt depicts a large tree with branches and color-coded leaves (different shades of green) indicating the date, sex, and location of gun violence deaths in these four Michigan counties since January 2023. An orange leaf represents non-fatal victims of gun violence (2.1 times more than fatal). The task force plans to add more leaves to the quilt quarterly.
The tree does not include gun deaths by suicide since statistics for those aren’t publicly available. Suicides do account for over 50% of gun deaths, so the tree consists of cloth bluebirds representing those additional losses. Bluebirds are a symbol of encouragement for people to know they are not alone. Cardinals symbolizing life, hope, and restoration are also on the quilt.
Val mentions that the task force is open to using their gifts and skills and taking action to make a difference in their community. They want to inspire other United Methodist churches to take similar initiatives.
“Use skills God has given you,” she encourages. “We use our hands and the gifts we have. This is just one way of making sure people keep the impact gun violence is having on us all in front of our minds. Maybe you’re called to act differently. Find it and pursue it.”
The task force has given Val tangible ways to hold on to hope. “It’s given me something to do with my despair,” she confesses, “when I hear the awful news of another school shooting. I can put my hands to work and feel like I’m part of the solution. And that’s been comforting to me. People get numb and frustrated that so many years have gone by without progress. This issue feels out of our control, and we get despondent. But I’m feeling some progress here.”
The new gun violence prevention laws in Michigan will help reduce the deaths caused by gun violence, Val believes. This local congregation’s task force is doing its part in educating members of their community on the impact of this legislation so precious lives are saved and protected.
Val would love to share her experience forming this task force and the church’s ministries with other Michigan United Methodists who are interested in learning more. You can email her at [email protected].
Last Updated on November 14, 2024