Declaring that the United States must end the "scourge" of gun-related violence which has brought a series of multiple killings in recent years, the US National Council of Churches (NCC) has come out in support of legislation in the US Congress aimed at limiting the ownership of guns.Expressing support for a new interfaith campaign for gun control, Robert Edgar, the NCC's new general secretary, said that because gun violence affected the lives of children—many of whom have been killed in the recent attacks—his agency had decided to make the issue one of its top advocacy and legislative priorities this year."We are aware that new laws alone will not end the wave of gun violence sweeping the nation," Edgar said at a news conference in Washington DC on 15 March, which was organized to announce the campaign, the Interfaith Call to End Gun Violence. "But we are convinced that the number of shootings will be reduced by making it harder for individuals to purchase the kinds of guns which have no function except to injure and kill humans."The US Congress in Washington is considering proposals that include waiting periods for the purchase of guns, along with mandatory background checks before purchases can be approved. The "Interfaith Call" supports these proposals, but goes further by supporting efforts to ban the sales of handguns and assault weapons.Guns and gun control have long been a volatile issue in the US. Supporters of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the country's leading gun lobby, say that the US Constitution protects the right of citizens to bear arms. While the NRA has carried enormous political clout through the years, it is facing an increasingly uneasy public outraged by an epidemic of gun violence, ...