'Lessening violence in our backyards'

Mennonites, others arrested in public witness at Philadelphia gun shop acquitted

Four Anabaptists were among 10 defendants acquitted May 26 on charges related to their arrest at a demonstration in front of a gun store in Philadelphia.

Two other defendants had charges against them dropped mid-trial in a Philadelphia municipal court. The charges stemmed from incidents during “Heeding God’s Call: A Gathering on Peace,” a Jan. 13-17 event led by Mennonites Church of the Brethren and Quakers that included a local focus on gun violence.

Five people went to Colosimo’s Gun Center Jan. 14 and asked the owner to sign a 10-point code of conduct to reduce illegal trafficking of guns. He refused to do so; the demonstrators did not leave, and were arrested inside the gun shop.

Two days later, three more went to ask again: J. Fred Kauffman and Drick Boyd, members of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, and Kemah Washington, an Episcopalian. All three were arrested in front of the door. They were charged with disorderly conduct, criminal conspiracy and blocking a public highway — referring to the sidewalk. Four more people then did the same.

“This is something Christians can do who want to lessen violence, immediately, in our backyards,” Kauffman said of supporting the code of conduct.

The code they advocated was created by Mayors Against Illegal Guns and signed by more than 300 mayors. It was drawn up in conversation with Wal-Mart, which has signed it.

“Its purpose is to give the gun retailer more tools to prevent the sale of guns to people who are going to resell them in the illegal market,” Kauffman said. “It’s a way of working directly with the point of the problem.”

The code includes provisions such as employee background checks, inventory checking and waiting for background check results before selling firearms.

Kauffman wants a re-examination of “our gun culture in the United States,” he said. “We need to step back and say, ‘Let’s take a look at this, because it really doesn’t make sense.’ ”

“We really need to rethink this. I was willing to face arrest because this is a problem of utmost seriousness, and it’s a problem that we cause ourselves.”

Kauffman has spoken to Christians from Taiwan, Ethiopia and Indonesia who are baffled by U.S. gun laws.

“In this campaign, Heeding God’s Call, what we are concerned about is the flow of weapons to the illegal market,” he said. “We are not concerned about hunters.” The problem is easy access to guns in urban areas both large and small, he said.

“Many hunters are very safety-conscious gun owners,” he said. “That’s not the problem.”

About 150 supporters, including a group of Mennonites, attended the six-hour trial May 26 for the 11 Christians and one Jewish rabbi. Four students from the Philadelphia Mennonite High School mock trial program also attended.

The defendants testified that they had not blocked people from entering the store, according to the law office of Lawrence Krasner, one of the attorneys who represented the defendants.

Municipal Court Judge Karen Yvette Simmons ruled that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania had not met their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. All the defendants were found not guilty, according to the law office. The judge didn’t explain why she ruled as she did.

Two other Anabaptists were tried and acquitted: Miriam Copp, a member of Circle of Hope, a Brethren in Christ congregation in Philadelphia; and Phil Jones, a member of the Washington (D.C.) City Church of the Brethren.

Power of community

After his arrest, Boyd spent 25 hours in jail. For half of that time he was alone after Kauffman and Washington were released.

“Those 12 hours turned out to be very troubling for me,” he said. “I knew there were people on the outside, and I knew God hadn’t deserted me, but I felt so alone.”

It was difficult to fill the time, and to wait without knowing how long it would be before his release, he said.

“I recited every Bible verse I could think of, every song and chorus I could think of,” he said.

The lead-up to the trial was also difficult. At the trial, the other defendants and supporters helped Boyd through the experience.

“One of the things I experienced through all that was the power of community,” he said.

Susan Mark Landis, peace advocate for Mennonite Church USA, sent a knit square of cloth and a note to each defendant to encourage them.

Landis said most of them were 12 stitches by 12 rows for the 12 defendants. She said prayers while stitching each one.

“This is the way public witness should be done,” Mark Landis said of the defendants’ actions. “It was a community coming together.”

Boyd took the piece of cloth out often during the trial and held it in his hand, he said.

“It was a very tangible reminder that we weren’t in this alone,” he said.

Boyd appreciates the way the arrests and trial inspired others, including a lawyer who approached Boyd, saying he had been involved in civil disobedience during the civil rights movement in the U.S. South.

“It really really impressed upon me the power of one’s example and one’s life,” he said.

Boyd had been thinking for years about the problem of illegal gun trafficking in Pennsylvania. A professor at Eastern University in Philadelphia, he has had students who are survivors of gun violence or who have lost family members.

“The issue became very real to me,” he said.

The idea is pervasive that carrying a gun makes one safer, Boyd said.

“For me, it’s so contrary to the gospel, and also to common sense,” he said. “With people carrying around guns, people are going to get hurt.”