Vern Bengtson is a professor of gerontology and sociology emeritus at the University of Southern California. He studies family relationships across generations, as well as how religious beliefs are passed from parents to children.

The Rev. Cheryl V. Minor is director of the Center for the Theology of Childhood at the Godly Play Foundation, which trains congregations on childhood spiritual formation. She also serves as co-rector of All Saints’ Church in Belmont, Mass.

Mike Martin is founder and executive director of RAWtools, an organization that confronts gun violence by leading community dialogues and transforming guns into garden tools. He is also the co-author, along with Christian activist Shane Claiborne, of Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence.

Barry Young is the vice president of operations for Strategos International, which provides safety training for businesses, schools, hospitals and churches. He previously served as director of security at two churches in Kansas City.

The Rev. Joey Spann is the minister of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tenn. He was shot twice during a Sept. 24, 2017, attack on his church.

The Rev. Rob Schenck is an ordained evangelical Christian minister and president of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute in Washington, D.C. In response to rising gun violence, he is working to challenge evangelical support for gun ownership.

The Rev. Erik J. Richtsteig is the pastor of St. James the Just Catholic Church in Ogden, Utah. He was leading Mass in June 2013 when a man with a gun entered his sanctuary and shot a parishioner.

Karen Swallow Prior is an author and English professor at Liberty University. She has written about carrying a gun while running, arguing that gun ownership can support the Christian call to protect innocent life.