Adopted by the 2020 JCPA Delegates Assembly
Click here for the PDF version.

Rooted in our belief in the sanctity of life, the Jewish community relations field has fought for decades to prevent gun violence, which has become heart-breakingly, unacceptably common. Gun violence, including mass shootings, have reached epidemic levels, impacting people from every walk of life in almost every community in our nation. The Jewish community has itself experienced the deadly effects of gun violence. Americans are now 25 times more likely to be killed by guns and eight times more likely to kill themselves with a gun than people in other developed countries. Each year, over 36,000 people are killed by guns and gun-related homicide remains the leading cause of death among Black teens and adults, ages 15-34.

JCPA’s work on gun violence prevention began in 1968. Over the next four decades, JCPA repeatedly returned to gun violence prevention, building consensus within the Jewish community to support commonsense regulations while opposing repressive crime control measures. Based on the 2013 Resolution on Mass Violence, JCPA penned an open letter to Congress in 2018, signed by 22 national Jewish agencies, including the four main denominations of Judaism, calling for stronger measures to end gun violence.

The Jewish community has a deep and abiding concern for public safety. Driven by our belief in the overriding sanctity of life and the commandment against murder, the Jewish community relations field is committed to a comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence, and to condemning mass shootings as domestic terrorism.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs believes that:

The Jewish community relations field should:

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