National Cathedral Dean Preaches Gun Control

WASHINGTON (AP) - The dean of Washington National Cathedral says followers of Jesus Christ and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. should support President Barack Obama's gun control proposals.

In his Sunday sermon on the eve of the MLK holiday, the Rev. Gary Hall noted that King preached his last sermon - an appeal for an end to violence - in the same pulpit four days before he was shot to death in 1968.

Hall said Jesus also was a victim of violence, as were the children at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

He said that since violence kills people created in God's image, "We who follow Jesus and stand with King have to stand against guns."

The dean of the cathedral where Tuesday's inaugural prayer service will be held urged worshippers to join him in supporting the gun control legislation recommended by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.