Standing along East Court Street in Doylestown Borough is a long row of cotton shirts hung on wooden frames, each with a name and date written on it.
Each of the 44 shirts represents a Bucks County resident killed by a gun murder in the past decade. It does not include those who used a gun to die by suicide.
The powerful display, a “Memorial to the Lost,” is part of Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence’s effort “to make people aware of the toll of gun violence,” said Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding, a grassroots, interfaith-based nonprofit.
“Each name represents a whole human being, a child of God. Each death deserves to be noted and mourned,” reads a flyer from Salem United Church of Christ, which is hosting the memorial on its property.
The memorial will later move to St. Paul Episcopal Church on East Oakland Street, prior to a “Witness Walk” on Nov. 19 in Doylestown to mark Gun Violence Awareness Day.
“This is not an anti-gun movement, it doesn’t question the Second Amendment,” stressed Beth Mann, chair of Salem UCC’s social action network. “We are focusing on combating the...illegal flow of guns, in particular straw purchasing.”
Straw purchasing is where someone buys one or more guns for illegal resale to people who can’t pass background checks.
The Heeding organization advocates for “One Handgun a Month,” legislation, said Mann, who added that it’d “keep straw purchasers from buying many guns at a time, which would dramatically cut the availability of handguns on streets and neighborhoods.”
Those supporting efforts to reduce gun violence are asked to “pray for the lives lost…and the families mourning every one of those lost lives.”
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