Kol Ami News

A group of Utah religious leaders lit candles at First Baptist Church while naming recent mass shooting victims from Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; Laguna Woods, California; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Between each name they quietly said, "No more."

The religious leaders from various faiths on Friday asked Utah lawmakers to "heed our cries of war and to do what is right and just."

Rabbi Sam Spector, of Congregation Kol Ami, said the Jewish faith teaches that when prayers are not followed up by action, it is a sin, and a violation of duty to God. He said to politicians and leaders who offer prayers and thoughts, they should also act.

He also said the Bible's book of Deuteronomy teaches that people should take every precaution to prevent danger, which should include laws preventing gun violence.

"What would our sacred scriptures, what would our spiritual prophets and leaders say today about gun violence? We know that they say do not stand idly by when your neighbor's blood is shed and yet after Sandy Hook, we saw that our country said, 'We love our children but not as much as our firearms,'" Rabbi Spector said.

The rabbi said he was 11 when there was a shooting at Columbine High School, which led to his first active shooter training. This year, he is organizing mandatory active shooter drills for his congregation and staff almost every month. He said he spent half of Thursday on the phone with the FBI, after receiving a second death threat for the week.

"While the government has in other cases said, 'Let us keep you safe,' what they told us … was, 'Here's what you do when somebody walks into your store, your place of worship. Now we give you the tools, now you figure it out,'" Rabbi Spector said.

He said he broke down in tears while preparing a sermon for the first time last week, because he was planning to talk about the shooting in Texas and someone asked him if he was going to include the shooting in Buffalo, New York, and he had forgotten about it, just a week later.

"This happens so often here that it no longer stands out in my mind," he said.

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