Young Episcopalians learn about gun violence prevention at Michigan retreat

[Episcopal News Service] High school students from the dioceses of Michigan and the Great Lakes gathered recently at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lansing to learn how to work faithfully towards ending gun violence through community organizing.

At the Jan. 16-18 Youth Working to End Gun Violence Retreat, the 17 participating teenagers were surprised to learn that “there are more gun dealers in the United States than there are McDonald’s and Starbucks together,” Labron, a parishioner at the Church of the Messiah in Detroit and a high school senior, told Episcopal News Service. “That’s really disturbing.”

Labron, last name held by request, said he personally knows “a lot of” people, including former friends, who were killed by gun violence. He registered for the retreat to learn how to be an effective gun violence reduction advocate.

The Detroit-based Diocese of Michigan co-hosted the retreat with Team ENOUGH, the youth outreach wing of the nonprofit Brady: United Against Gun Violence. Adult staff from The Episcopal Church and the dioceses of Ohio and Colorado observed the retreat to potentially implement a similar churchwide program, said Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry.

“We want to be really rooted in the context of the state of Michigan and to look at ways that kids can both explore and embody their baptismal covenants,” Perry, a co-convener of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence network, told ENS ahead of the retreat. “We want the youth to be equipped to tell their story and understand how they might be involved in community organizing to educate adults as to how to keep them safer.”

Gun violence prevention is a cornerstone of Perry’s episcopate. In 2022, she co-founded End Gun Violence Michigan, which is credited with helping gun safety legislation pass in Michigan in response to the 2019 mass shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township and the 2021 mass shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

During the retreat, the students learned about state and federal gun violence laws, including red flag laws. They also learned about the systemic loopholes, like delays in court processing, that enable many people to bypass them and purchase guns.

The students also learned state and nationwide gun violence statistics. For example, on average, 1,412 Michiganders, including 115 minors, die annually from gun violence, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Jan. 21, 674 people, including 54 minors, have died from gun violence in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. Still, most U.S. gun-related deaths are suicides.

“There’s a lot more to gun violence than just mass shootings. There are accidental shootings; there’s suicide, and these deaths have succumbed to crazy numbers. Why are we not caring more as a nation?” BrookeLynn, last name held by request, told ENS. “It’s just very shocking, and it’s morbid to me that we’ve hardly done anything at all to make a change.” BrookeLynn, a high school junior, is a parishioner at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven.

In 1999, 14 people were killed in a mass shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Colorado. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Since then, more than 390 school shootings have occurred nationwide, killing at least 203 students and staff, according to data analysis by the Washington Post.

“This is why more youth need to learn how to advocate for gun control. We need to tell our friends and our families these facts and do something about it together,” Labron said.

“The perspectives and voices of the youth need to be treated with the same level of importance as people who are older than them,” Perry said. “The youth are living through this reality and the trauma it causes in real time.”

Since 1976, General Convention has passed 21 resolutions addressing gun violence. The resolutions range from advocating to ban military-style assault weapons to urging Congress to declare gun violence a national mental health crisis.

Every day during the retreat, the students gathered for prayer. Since then, the students have been communicating in a group chat and growing what Labron and BrookeLynn, both said they hope will be new friendships rooted in shared faith and advocacy.

“As long as we keep ourselves educated and raise our voices together, I feel confident we can make a difference in reducing gun violence in our communities,” BrookeLynn said. “We’re ready now.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.