Political Notebook: SF church leaders ring a toll for gun prevention

For five minutes on the first Friday of each month, the Reverend Rob Herrmann can be found outside Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood ringing a hand bell. He has done so since being named pastor of the congregation last year in July.

Herrmann and the handful of folks who join him for the monthly action start at precisely 9:35 a.m. and end at 9:40 a.m. They do so to call attention to the daily gun violence that pervades America and the need for lawmakers to adopt common sense laws and regulations to address it.

“It is a tolling mourning the people who have died due to gun violence and for sane, reasonable gun laws in this country,” explained Herrmann to the Bay Area Reporter as he clanged a bell the morning of September 5 on the street outside the church, located at the intersection of Clipper and Sanchez streets.

As he did so, Herrmann handed out an orange flier to people walking their dogs or running by on Sanchez Street, one of the city’s Slow Streets it designated at the start of the COVID pandemic to provide residents with a safe venue for outdoor recreation. The handout explains the bellringers are taking part in “Ring Out Danger,” an ecumenical campaign that enlists houses of worship from different denominations to join the monthly end gun violence demonstrations.

“As people of faith, we revere life as the greatest gift, and view the taking of life as wrong,” states the flier. “To signal our mourning and to protest the ongoing lack of meaningful action to rein in the epidemic of gun violence, faith communities across the country are joining in a campaign to publicly mark this mourning and protest through tolling of bells, blowing of shofars and conches, and any other sounds sacred to any community of faith.”

The action was begun by the Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma in California’s Sonoma County north of San Francisco on June 2 in 2023, as it fell on the first Friday of June, which is yearly observed as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Leaders of the church recruited clergy and parishioners from other churches and synagogues in town to join in.

Herrmann, a gay man, participated as he was serving at the time as pastor for both St. John’s UMC in Rohnert Park and Petaluma UMC. He has only missed ringing bells on two first Fridays ever since.

“I think it is important to participate in something visual,” he said. “It is an outreach and an opportunity to engage with the community.”

He acknowledged that the timing of the ring outs makes it hard for most people with jobs to participate. Thus, rarely is there a large pool of participants.

“I know the time is difficult for people to make work,” noted Herrmann.

Joining him for the first time earlier this month was filmmaker Yuriko Gamo Romer, who lives nearby the church in Noe Valley. As she rang the handbell Herrmann had provided to her, Romer remarked, “This is a workout.”

A staunch anti-gun person, she told the B.A.R. that she decided to take part in the action because she doesn’t think guns should be allowed on city streets.

“It is a nice morning to ring some bells and hopefully have some people pay attention,” said Romer, whose latest film “Diamond Diplomacy” about baseball fostering ties between Japan and the U.S. will have its debut next month at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

A frequent participant has been Michael Eaton, a gay man and lay leader at the church. He also is a founding member of Bell Appeal, a handbell choir sponsored by Bethany UMC but whose membership is open to the public. He has only missed a few of the ring outs since last summer.

“As often as I am here in town,” said Eaton of his participation.

Rain or shine Herrmann tolls the handbells and will next do so the morning of October 3, with anyone welcome to join him. To Herrmann, he views the monthly actions as “building a community” of likeminded people when it comes to gun prevention efforts.

He allowed there’s no way to judge if the ring outs have had any discernable impact. Rather, he quoted the late Saint Oscar Romero, prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating mass.

“We are prophets of a future not our own,” Romero had said.

 
Recent actions in SF
Local leaders have taken action in recent weeks to address gun violence. In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie in early September launched a new Pierce’s Pledge Gun Safety Storage Program at the San Francisco Police Department in partnership with District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill and gun violence prevention leaders.

The program allows city residents to surrender their firearms at any of the city’s 10 district police stations to be securely stored for up to one year at no cost rather than keep them at their homes.

It is named after Pierce O’Loughlin, who was fatally shot by his father, Stephen, in January 2021 in order to prevent his ex-wife, Lesley Hu, from vaccinating their young son for COVID. Stephen O’Loughlin also took his own life that day.

“My son Pierce was murdered with a gun by his father, my ex-husband, in his apartment in San Francisco’s Marina district. Pierce was only 9 years old, and I was fighting for custody to keep him safe. Shockingly, what happened to Pierce happens every six days in America,” stated Hu in announcing the new program. “Our partnership with SFPD sends a powerful message: Protecting children during custody disputes is a shared responsibility.”

Under the program, before the one-year mark of when a person stored their firearm via a city police station, they will be contacted by the police department about reclaiming it. If they wish not to, they can sell or transfer the title to a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer, provided that the firearms are legal to own or possess and the person has the right to title the firearm, noted the mayor’s office.

“This program represents a simple idea with a powerful goal: To save lives by helping families remove firearms from the home during volatile circumstances,” stated Lurie. “Safe gun storage saves lives, whether it prevents a suicide, an accidental shooting, or the kind of tragedy that Pierce’s family has endured.”

Added Sherrill, who represents the Marina on the Board of Supervisors, “This program honors Pierce’s memory and stands as a powerful step toward preventing violence in our city.”

In Sacramento, Governor Gavin Newsom has before him to sign or veto Assembly Bill 1078 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), which would update California’s firearm laws to align with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions calling for a text-and-history test when evaluating Second Amendment cases related to firearm regulations. Sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, Berman’s legislation also would create a purchasing limit of three guns per 30 days in the Golden State.

“California has long been a leader in implementing commonsense firearm laws, and those laws save thousands of lives. As the Supreme Court creates new standards for evaluating the Second Amendment, our firearm laws must evolve to remain effective and continue to save lives,” stated Berman.

And AB 1127 authored by Assemblymembers Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco) aims to prevent guns from being easily converted into deadly automatic weapons by prohibiting the sale of any semi-automatic handgun in California that is easily convertible into a fully automatic machine gun. It also awaits Newsom’s signage.

“Let’s call this what it is: reckless greed from gun manufacturers who know their products can be turned into illegal machine guns,” stated Stefani, a former District 2 supervisor who has long championed gun violence prevention. “AB 1127 says enough is enough. If these companies won’t redesign their weapons to protect our communities, California will hold them accountable.”

Gay House candidate fundraises in SF
A number of LGBTQ leaders in the Bay Area are set to host a fundraiser in San Francisco next week for gay U.S. House candidate Brandon Riker. The gay entrepreneur and trained economist who lives in Palm Springs plans to run in 2026 against Congressmember Darrell Issa (R-Vista) should Proposition 50 be passed by voters this November.

The redistricting ballot measure aims to add five more House seats in California to the Democratic column, one being Issa’s 48th congressional district. It would stretch from San Diego County up to the Coachella Valley if Prop 50 is enacted.

Among the hosts for Riker’s event are lesbian former San Francisco supervisor and current Oakland resident Leslie Katz and Scotty Jacobs, a gay man who lost his bid for a San Francisco supervisor seat last year and now leads the new moderate civic group Blueprint for a Better SF. Tickets for the event, which takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, September 29, begin at $100 a person.

To RSVP and receive the location, click here.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column checked in with out Sunnyvale City Councilmember Richard Mehlinger, who was injured riding his bike after being struck by a car a block from his home.

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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected].