In our efforts to advocate public policies and actions that further the cause of peace and the common good, LIPW has formed affiliations with the following:
Formal LIPW Statements
Statements of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), adopted by LIPW, April 20, 2013
• We need to require criminal background checks every time a gun is sold. We need to take military-style assault weapons and high capacity magazines off our streets. And we need to make gun trafficking a federal crime with tough penalties.
• An overwhelming majority of Americans support common sense gun reform. But to make sure they stand up to the gun lobby and pass legislation, your members of Congress need to hear from you.
• Mayors can do a lot to maintain public safety. But when guns are crossing state lines and gun traffickers are exploiting loopholes to avoid background checks, it’s time for a national solution. That’s why today, more than 900 mayors have joined together to say: Enough. And more than 1.4 million supporters like you have joined together to tell Washington that the time has come.
Friends Committee on National Legislation Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness supports the position of, FCNL and the coalition of Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence in the following ways:
1. Require universal background checks. Every person who buys a gun should pass a criminal background check via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NCIS)
2. Renew and update the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. High capacity weapons and ammunition magazines should not be available to citizens.
3. Enforce gun trafficking as a federal crime. We should empower law enforcement to investigate and prosecute straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and their entire criminal networks.
CeaseFirePa. on Reasonable Approaches to Gun Legislation
CeaseFirePA is a statewide coalition of mayors, police chiefs, faith leaders, community organizations, and individual Pennsylvanians working together to take a stand against gun violence. Through outreach, education, coalition building, and advocacy, we work to reduce gun violence in our communities, stop the flow of illegal guns onto our streets, and keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.
Inequality Statement
•Inequality Drives Occupy Wall Street Adopted by LIPW Board, Dec. 2011
In this coming election year we affirm the equal importance of caring for human need to that of fiscal viability. The moral imperative calls out for compassion within the spirit of fairness. Specifically we commit ourselves to:
1. Highlighting the enormous social price which is paid to perpetuate inequality
2. Correlating the expanding military budget with decline in domestic security.
3. Confronting the loss of democratic process by concentrated wealth.
4. Calling upon corporations and government to make decisions for the common good.
5. Noting that the $24 billion Pennsylvanians spend in federal dollars for war in one year would pay for Head Start programs, teacher job creation, health care, or renewable energy.
Reference writings of Bill Moyers, Dr. Gary Dorrien, Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All”. http://www.pachurchesadvocacy.
Call for Diplomacy with Iran
•Call for Diplomacy with Iran, November 2011 “We strongly urge Congress to reject calls for military action and indiscriminate sanctions and to establish a channel for communications with Iran to avert further violence. “Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, with Friends Committee on National Legislation, is deeply concerned over continued hostilities against Iran. We call on U.S. policymakers to affirm that war is not the answer with Iran, and that ongoing escalation in U.S-Iran tensions highlights the urgent necessity of establishing communication channels between the U.S. and Iran. “We urge policymakers to press for sustained, direct, and comprehensive negotiations with Iran to prevent violence, and to secure lasting solutions to regional conflict and the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear program. The US instrumentality toward Iran is overwhelmingly the language of hostile rhetoric and military action. Recent efforts by members of congress to prevent any kind of diplomatic contact with Iran are untenable. “The present course of US action policy, beholden to AIPAC is not in the US interests. Interests of the US and the international community should not be sacrificed to hostile Iranian or American rhetoric and disputes over Iran’s nuclear capability. The hostile climate perpetuated by the US will only hasten, not restrain, nuclear threats in the region.”