A US Christian leader has asked a World Council of Churches peacemaking team visiting the United States for assistance to rid his country of the "scourge" of gun violence during the team's September 2007 visit.
Discussions about gun control and small arms trafficking, violence in the streets and against ethnic groups, as well as the engagement by churches in peacemaking activities consumed the first days of a 10-day visit to the United States by an international team.
More than 100 US urban youth and members of local Anabaptist churches came together earlier this month (November 2006) for Packing the Peace of Christ, a conference focused on a Christian response to handgun homicide, which takes an average of one life per day here - write Justin Shenk and Shannon Burgess.