Raleigh, Durham protesters call for solutions to gun violence in wake of mass shootings
Amy Beros and her family had never attended a gun violence prevention event until Saturday.
But mass shootings over the past three weeks at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, convinced Beros and her husband Adrian to bring their two school-age children to Raleigh’s John Chavis Memorial Park, where roughly 200 people gathered to express their frustrations and look for a solution to the continuing carnage.
“After Buffalo and Uvalde, we can’t just not do something anymore,” she said. “And we can’t expect others to do it for us.”
They live in Holly Springs, and their son Anderson, 10, and daughter Addison, 12, both go to schools with lockdown drills. That’s a safety measure unheard of a generation ago, but now a necessity. More than 330 schools have seen gun violence since two teenagers murdered 12 students and a teacher in Columbine High School in 1999, according to The Washington Post.
As the Beros family listened to speakers who talked about losing loved ones to gun violence, others lined up to speak at a faith-based summit in Durham to talk about gun violence and urge people to take action.
Ana Flores said she moved to Durham from Mexico when she was 4. She grew up in neighborhoods where sirens and gunfire were constant. Her parents told her not to open the door if someone knocks.
“I feel like no one hears us,” she said. “So my question to you guys is, Where do we sign up to petition? Because I know everybody is saying enough is enough. How many lives are going to be taken away so people can take us seriously?”
Several others at the summit of 10 churches, hosted by Covenant Presbyterian Church, said it’s long past time to vote out lawmakers who stand in the way of gun safety measures such as red flag laws, background checks, raising the gun ownership age to 21, and banning assault rifles.
The shooters in Buffalo and Uvalde were 18, and both used assault rifles they legally purchased.
Joe Harvard, a retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church, said both of North Carolina’s senators — Richard Burr and Thom Tillis — have been part of the problem. He urged the roughly 60 people to contact them and other federal lawmakers to pass meaningful legislation in the days ahead.
“We have two senators who combined have received $12 million from the NRA,” he said. “That’s who they are responding to. They need to hear from us.”
Earlier in the week, volunteers with Moms Demand Action, a national group advocating gun safety measures, dropped off petitions with 19,000 North Carolinians’ signatures to Burr and Tillis’ congressional offices, the Charlotte Observer and the Associated Press reported.
According to OpenSecrets.org, a national campaign finance watchdog, Burr and Tillis rank second and third on the list of U.S. senators who received the most financial help from the NRA during their political careers. The NRA spent nearly $7 million either for Burr or against his opponents, and spent $5.6 million in a similar fashion helping Tillis.
Neither Burr nor Tillis, both Republicans, have responded to questions regarding gun legislation from editorial staff with The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer in recent days. A spokesperson for Tillis told the Observer that he has joined a bipartisan effort in the Senate “seeking to find common ground solutions to curb gun violence that also protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.”
The events in Raleigh and Durham took place a day after National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Now in its eighth year, it was started in memory of Hadiya Pendleton, 15, of Chicago, who was shot in the back and killed while standing with friends at a park.
Supporters of the movement wear orange to commemorate gun violence victims and survivors. They’ve chosen that color because that’s what hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves.
Gov. Roy Cooper issued a proclamation for the day on Friday, and said the lights at the executive mansion would be lit orange through the weekend.
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 5:52 PM.