Several pastors offered prayers and stern words for leaders outside Cornyn's Dallas office Wednesday afternoon. They say they will keep pressure on lawmakers to exact change, even if it takes several attempts.
"You will not stop us, and this is not the end," the Rev. Stacey Brown said from a brown-and-white dais.
Brown and pastors from around the state also hand-delivered the names of loved ones they would like to spare from gun violence. Brown and others could be seen on Faith in Texas' Instagram Live appealing to a 23-year-old staff member.
The group also shared their four demands, which included passing universal background checks, launching culturally responsive mental health infrastructure, funding community violence intervention strategies and banning assault weapons and ghost guns.
The Rev. Cathy Sweeney with Arapaho United Methodist Church says she feels confident the messages will get to Cornyn.
"I do believe that those concerns will be shared, and my hope is that they will be shared in the same context that we shared them: with vulnerability and openness and honesty, even emotion," she said.
Asked for comment on the rally, a spokesperson for Cornyn said in an email the U.S. senator has been engaged in bipartisan conversations this week on legislation. The spokesperson provided a written statement from Cornyn stating he had a productive meeting with other senators.
"We've asked our staff to continue to work together to address some of the details that we hope to be able to discuss at some point soon," Cornyn said in the statement.
Sweeney told gatherers outside Cornyn's office that staff provided information on measures Cornyn would support.
"What we heard was a lot of preventative measures that he would support, but not measures that would reduce the number of guns in the United States," she said.
Faith in Texas is a nonpartisan, multi-faith and multiracial grassroots group, according to the organization'swebsite. Members campaign for social, racial and economic equity
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