FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Southport’s Trinity Episcopal Church will host a panel on ways to stop gun violence Thursday evening, featuring four local experts and advocates.

Trinity rector Rev. Nicholas Porter says he organized the event after seeing his congregation’s response to the Sandy Hook School shooting last December. Porter and assistant rector Rev. Dawn Stegelmann participated in the March for Change in Hartford in March, which pushed for the wave of new laws after the Newtown shooting.

The church also recently started a group called Trinity Against Gun Violence. The task force stresses that they do not wish to curtail gun ownership, but rather want to improve safety, especially when children are involved, using “education, example and effort,” Porter said.

“We want to do what we can do to alleviate gun violence,” Rev. Porter said in a news release.

The panel for Thursday’s event will include Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara, Po Murray of Sandy Hook-inspired advocacy group the Newtown Action Alliance, social worker and counselor Dawn M. Roy and Meg Felton Staunton, founder of March for Change.

The talk, titled “Speaking from Experience: Seasoned Leaders Offer Solutions to Gun Violence,” will be moderated by Right Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The discussion will have a town-hall-style format, where attendees can submit questions on index cards for the panel to answer.

The event is scheduled to run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on June 20, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 651 Pequot Ave. in the Southport section of Fairfield. The discussion is free and open to the public.

Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.