Jacqueline Von Edelberg, an artist and activist from Chicago, works with a volunteer to post a sign prior to Saturday’s Moms Demand Action march from Hammond to Chicago. Residents of Indiana and Illinois took part in the march to highlight the flow of guns from Indiana to Chicago.
Traci Kurtzer, of Chicago, wears a T-shirt that lists the names of children killed as a result of gun violence for Saturday’s Moms Demand Action march from Hammond to Chicago. Residents of Indiana and Illinois took part in the march, starting from Wolf Lake Park, to promote gun safety.
Sue Eleuterio, right, Indiana legislative lead for Moms Demand Action of Northwest Indiana, addresses participants in Saturday’s Moms Demand Action march from Hammond to Chicago to promote gun safety and related legislation.
Residents of Indiana and Illinois participate in Saturday’s Moms Demand Action march from Hammond to Chicago. The 3.6-mile walk started from Wolf Lake Park.
Gidget Griffin, of Michigan City, attaches orange strips to build a chain as a memorial to lives lost to gun violence prior to Saturday’s Moms Demand Action march from Hammond to Chicago. Residents of Indiana and Illinois took part in the march to promote gun safety and related legislation.
HAMMOND — Saturday’s cold and rain did not stop marchers from Indiana and Illinois to speak out against gun violence and for sensible gun legislation.
Chanting the day’s theme of “our borders will not divide us,” women, men, and children participated in the Moms Demand Action march for gun safety. Starting from Wolf Lake Park, the group proceeded along Calumet Avenue to Calumet Beach Park in Chicago for a rally with speakers.
Co-sponsored by Moms Demand Action of Northwest Indiana and South Suburbs, the march was designed to highlight the flow of guns from Indiana to Illinois. According to organizers of the march, nearly 60% of guns recovered in Chicago come from out of state, with about 20% coming from Indiana.
Sue Eleuterio, Moms legislative lead for the Northwest Indiana chapter, said 100 people each from Indiana and Illinois had registered for the initial 3.6-mile walk.
“Moms and grandmoms are physically walking the path that guns are taking,” Eleuterio said, “and to say ‘enough.’”
Marchers were also promoting passage of the Senate version of House Resolution 8, which would provide for universal background checks for potential gun ownership. The bill has already passed the House of Representatives.
Eleuterio knows something about guns. A mother and grandmother, she said two of her sons are gun owners who went through background checks and they keep their weapons locked.
Eleuterio also knows something about gun violence. Her daughter, a Chicago public school teacher, lost one of her third-graders. While walking home from his grandmother’s home, the child was shot and killed.
Irma Aragon has also personally experienced gun violence when her son, Israel Jr., was shot and killed while walking home from work Sept. 7, 2016.
“They killed my son. They killed my family. I lost my son and family,” Aragon said. “That’s the effect of gun violence. It affects dads, moms, sisters, the community.”
Brenda Mitchell, state legislative lead for Moms of South Suburbs, has also experienced gun violence in her family, including the death of her brother in 1981.
“It hits home,” Mitchell said. “We’re losing a generation of children out there. Mothers are burying babies, and that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
Through the march and other activities, Mitchell continued, “We’re asking lawmakers to institute laws that close the loopholes in favor of common-sense gun laws.”
Moms Demand Action is a grassroots movement of citizens fighting for public safety measures to protect against gun violence. The group works with legislators and business owners to encourage a culture of responsible gun ownership.
Shannon Watts, a mother of five, started the group following a national gun tragedy. One day after the Sandy Hook shootings, Watts started a Facebook group with the message that Americans can and should do more to reduce gun violence. Online conversations grew into a movement, one with chapters now in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Many of the marchers, such as Traci Kurtzer, of Chicago, wore something orange as a memorial to Hadiyah Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago girl fatally shot in the back Jan. 29, 2013. The girl had sung at President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Kurtzer’s orange T-shirt listed names of children killed by gun violence and sites of mass shootings in this country.
“I’m marching for all the people who’ve lost children and, in honor of Domestic Violence Month, I’m remembering the women shot by their partners,” Kurtzer said.
Orange was also very evident in the strips of material used to make a chain as part of a program started by U.S. school children. Jacqueline Von Edelberg, an artist, activist and community organizer, said 13,000 strips of material match the number of people killed by guns since Sandy Hook.
The display has gone around the country, Von Edelberg said, and will be in Chicago Monday during President Donald Trump’s fundraiser at Trump Tower.
“The idea is to drive awareness for sensible gun legislation,” Von Edelberg said. “It’s really important.”
