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19 students and 2 teachers from Ulvalde's Robb Elementary School gunned down in cold blood.
The deadliest shooting in the US this year.
Just 10 days after 10 were shot and killed in a Buffalo supermarket, most of them people of color.
215 such shootings since the middle of May.

These are not statistics.
These are hearts and souls no longer with us.

Buffalo, Uvalde and these mass shootings -- all in the US, nowhere else in the world -- reveal that we have grossly misunderstood religion and rights.
We've accepted passive religion satisfied with thoughts and prayers and rejected active religion that takes responsibility for righting all wrongs.
And, we have assumed that our rights to free speech and to bear arms excuse us from restricting the weapons used to take so many lives and resisting the words of white supremacy and racist ideology that so often lead to the firing of those same weapons.
 
May we embrace a religion that prays AND practices whatever love demands. And, may the right to love and be loved rise above all others.

We pray to our faith's Higher Deity, if we believe in One.
We plead with the public and our country's power brokers, legislators and gun lobbyists.
We call out for gun control and mental health action NOW.
 
It comes down to having more reverence for life than for guns.

The Interfaith Council of Southwestern Connecticut Board of Directors
Dr. Kareem Adeeb, President
Rev. Mark Lingle, Executive Director
Rev. Michael Hyman, Secretary
Rev. Chris Altrock, Advisor
Marie Orsini Rosen, Vice President & Interim Treasurer