By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A group of interfaith clergy gathered this afternoon in center city Philadelphia to call on their members to work for gun control.

And they chose a symbolic spot to issue the call for action.

Rev. Jim McIntyre, of the anti-gun clergy group “Heeding God’s Call,” says the spot where the group gathered, on North Sixth Street near Race, had an auspicious history.

“It was on this site that in 1838, religious leaders from Philadelphia gathered and made a public statement calling slavery a religious issue that we must stand against,” he tells KYW Newsradio.

McIntyre says it was a watershed moment in the abolition movement, and he hopes this gathering will start that same momentum in the gun control movement.

Another clergyman, Rabbi David Strauss (far right in photo), saw cause for hope.

“I think and hope we may finally be at a tipping point,” he said.  “The American people, I believe, have been aroused by this ongoing, senseless slaughter.”

Strauss says people of faith have a duty to seize the moment to help curb gun violence.