Area High School students gathered along with activists and community leaders in Glenview’s Jackman Park, Saturday to protest against gun violence and ask the question, how many have to die before action is taken?
Students, parents, grandparents, teachers, and residents, many wearing orange in a sign of unity, rallied to demand change from lawmakers, calling for national gun safety legislation, and gathering to remember victims of recent mass shootings, in Buffalo, New York, Laguna Woods, California, and Uvalde, Texas.
Andrew Duffy, co-organizer and rising Senior at Glenbrook South High School said, when they practice active shooter drills in his school, they are told to run, hide, or fight.
“Well, today,” Duffy said, “we are fighting, we are fighting for those who have been lost and we are fighting for our future.”
According to Duffy, gun control is needed at a national level to address the public health crisis that is gun violence.
“We need universal background checks, we need to raise the age of obtaining a weapon to 21, we need to strengthen red flag laws, implement a licensing system, mandate classes and mental health screening and so much more,” Duffy said.
The rally brought together participating organizations like the League of Women Voters, the Democrats of Northfield Township, Indivisible Glenview, Moms Demand Action and others.
Milagros Burgos, mother of Alexandria Imani Bergos, shot and killed at just 18-years-old, by a stray bullet in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood in 2014, spoke during the rally.
“This is America and our children should be safe in school, in church or walking to the park, we should not be burying our children,” Burgos said.
“Today we take our pain to purpose, because when we say goodbye to our children in the morning we expect them to come home at night, because we all deserve a future,” Burgos said.
Other speakers included Indivisible Glenview leader, Cathy Wilson,
Glenbrook South rising Senior, Marlene Lee, Illinois Moms Demand Action leader, Caryn Fliegler, Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton, 14th District, Illinois State Representative — 17th District, Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz and Democrats of Northfield Township committeeperson, Tracy Katz Muhl.
Cathy Wilson of Indivisible Glenview said, since Uvalde, the country has seen 20 mass shootings, a total from the beginning of June which may be even higher now.
So far this year, according to Wilson, there have been at least 24 acts of gun violence on K-12 campuses during the school day.
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“School shooters include a 6-year-old boy, who killed a classmate after saying he didn’t like her, and a 15-year-old body, who did the same to a friend for rejecting her romantic overtures,” Wilson told the crowd.
Democrats of Northfield Township, committeeperson, Tracy Katz Muhl said this year deaths due to gun violence have surpassed deaths due to car accidents.
Muhl says, this is a solvable problem and there is something that everyone can do.
“Volunteer for gun violence prevention with organizations like the Brady Campaign or Moms Demand Action, educate yourself on gun safety and prevention, and vote, vote, vote _ gun sense legislation will be all over the ballot during our upcoming, June 28, 2022, primary election,” Muhl said.
Gina Grillo is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.