Positions on Social Issues

Guns, Hate Crimes, Health Insurance

<Back to Positions index

 

Gun Control

Taking note of the number of "gun-inflicted killings" and the "impossibility of relying on local gun control laws" given the flow of handguns across state lines, Convention in 1975 called upon Congress "to enact legislation to control the manufacture, importation, sale, interstate and intrastate shipment, ownership, possession, registration, and use of all guns, parts and ammunition." In 1996 Convention affirmed and supported "the continued ban on sales and importation of assault weapons, parts, and ammunition."


Hate Crimes

In 1996, Convention strongly condemned the rash of church arsons that had taken place in the preceding year, and offered specific support to one of the churches thus burned. The 1999 Convention supported "legislative efforts deploring hate crimes in our country and urging passage of legislation that will render such crimes illegal," and requested governmental authorities at all levels to "implement a plan of action which includes orientation and ongoing training of all police officers, corrections officers, state troopers and federal law enforcement authorities, and that the objective of the training program must mandate the need for equal treatment of all persons regardless of race, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability," and further demanded that "governmental authorities who cannot adhere to the concept of equal rights for all, not be permitted to function as police officers, corrections officers, state troopers or federal law enforcement officers."


Health Insurance, National

The 1994 Convention supported the implementation of a national health insurance plan "that is truly universal and permanent."

 

Homosexuality>