What's Happening

May 31, 2022, Seattle, Washington – Sister Judy Byron, OP, director of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, recently spoke to the National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report about the need for stricter gun regulations in the wake of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. She called on gun manufacturers to “step up” and to be more responsible in gun sales, and on legislators to enact measures such as universal background checks for people seeking to buy guns.

Sister Judy Byron, OP

Sister Judy has long been involved in the efforts to bring about common sense gun laws. An upcoming effort on June 1, 2022, is a shareholder resolution calling on gun manufacturers Sturm, Ruger, & Company, Inc., to oversee “a third party Human Right Impact Statement” that would recommend ways to improve “the human rights impacts of its policies, practices, and products, above and beyond legal and regulatory matters.”

The Global Sisters Report article also quoted a recent statement by the General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in response to the mass shooting in Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

Read the full Global Sisters Report article by Gail DeGeorge and Chris Herlinger.

May 25, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters issued the following statement, calling for common sense gun safety laws in the wake of the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas – the third mass shooting in 10 days.

Our hearts are broken and enraged that another community in our nation has suffered the ravaging impact of mass murder at the hands of easily obtainable rapid-firing weapons. We do not know what motivated the 18-year-old to massacre 19 elementary school children and two teachers, injuring numerous others, including his grandmother. We do know that no other country in the world not at war has rampages like this on such a shatteringly recurring basis. 

This is the third shooting to take place in 10 days – 10 women and men killed while peacefully shopping at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York; one person killed and five injured the next day at a Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods, California; and yesterday in Uvalde, Texas, the second deadliest school shooting in our nation’s history.

How many children and adults whose lives have been taken by gun violence in the last decade might still be alive today if our nation had common sense gun safety laws? A majority of Americans support common sense restrictions on gun ownership. We call on members of Congress to take immediate action to do just that: enact legislation that bans access to militarized assault weapons with high-capacity ammunition magazines, provides for background checks, and restricts concealed weapons, among other steps.

We pray God’s loving embrace comforts the grieving families in Uvalde, Buffalo and Laguna Woods who are suffering such devastating loss. “Our God’s love never ends. God’s mercies never stop. They are new every morning; great is God’s faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23)

Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ General Council are Sisters Patricia Siemen, OP, Prioress; Mary Margaret Pachucki, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; Frances Nadolny, OP, Administrator and General Councilor; and Patricia Harvat, OP, and Elise D. García, OP, General Councilors.