Interfaith rally laments proliferation of weapons
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Rashed Harun of Squirrel Hill displays his sign and feelings during the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network public action meeting Thursday at Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside.
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The Rev. Glenn Grayson took the podium before a cheering crowd of about 1,100 gathered in the Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside Thursday night and delivered the crowd a somber message: "Last year at this time, I was burying my 18-year-old son."
The minister, from Wesley Center A.M.E. Zion Church in the Hill District, recounted the night police told him his son, Jeron Grayson, had been shot at a party near the California University of Pennsylvania campus.
"The question we need to know is how are the guns getting into our communities," Rev. Grayson said.
"We need to know. We need to know," the crowd chanted back.
Moments later, Eric McIntosh from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, took the podium and asked police Chief Nathan Harper, "Will you commit to making public the aggregate data and statistics compiled by the Firearms Tracking Unit of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police?"
Chief Harper, without hesitating, quietly said, "Yes."
"It is all of our problem," the chief said of gun violence.
Chief Harper's promise, like those made by a handful of other public officials, was part of a two-hour "Public Action" meeting held by the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network.
For nine years now, the group -- which consists of about 45 synagogues, mosques and churches and works with several local partner organizations -- has been calling upon government leaders to make specific promises aimed at reducing gun violence, improving education, funding public transportation and fixing other trouble issues in the community.
PIIN members meet in private with local leaders to hash out their promises in advance of the public gathering.
"There are no surprises," said the Rev. John Welch, a former PIIN president. "This is the commitment."
First Published November 4, 2011 12:00 am
