Vice President Joe Biden met with Jewish, Muslim Christians, Sikh and other religious leaders Monday to encourage them to back gun control as matter of morals.
He met for two and a half hours with rabbis, pastors, nuns and other religious leaders before the gun control bill comes up for a Senate vote.
“The conversation presumed the vote would happen first on immigration,” Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, told the Associated Press.
“That seemed to be the back-and-forth on both sides — that immigration was a key priority right now. When that vote took place, it would be an opportunity to refocus on this,” he said.
Christina evangelicals at the meeting are concerned with background checks on gun owners and with mental health provisions that they fear might be used for a list to ban people from owning
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, said a diverse spectrum of denominations and religious orders were represented, including evangelical leaders Richard Cizik and Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, as well as Sister Marge Clark of Network, a Catholic group.