Victims of Gun Violence Remembered

In a solemn ceremony to honor the dead on Thursday, the traditional Memorial Day, the mourners carried shoes instead of flags as they remembered victims of gun violence.

Two dozen people representing churches, schools, hospitals and other organizations contributed nearly 250 pairs of shoes for the second annual Silent March ’96 set for Washington on Sept. 30.

The shoes, collected at the Amtrak station in Fullerton, will join what organizers hope will be a total of 39,595 pairs. That represents the number of gunshot victims who died in 1993, the latest year for which statistics are available, said Mary Leigh Blek, chairwoman of Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence.

The group is protesting the easy accessibility of so-called Saturday night specials and other handguns. The shoes will be displayed in Sacramento in August, at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington in the fall, then donated to charities.

Blek and her husband, Charles, chose Memorial Day at the train station for the shoe collection because that was the time and place they last saw their son Matthew before he was gunned down two years ago.

The 21-year-old was preparing to take a train across the country for a summer with a friend in New York City when he was accosted by three teenagers who robbed him and shot him in the head, Blek said.

“That was our awakening to the gun situation,” Blek said. “We thought that was someone else’s problem. Every 92 minutes a young person dies in gunfire in the United States. . . . We just have to do something.”

The Mission Viejo couple were joined by doctors and church workers, who often have to deal with the trauma caused by gunfire, and by gun-control activist Jerry Caminiti.

Caminiti, president of the Disability Awareness Coalition, was shot in the stomach by a drug addict in 1980.

Those who wish to contribute shoes in good condition may call (714) 474-6810 for information. The group asks that a note or picture of someone touched by gun violence be inserted in the shoes, along with a $1 donation, if possible, to cover shipping costs.

Maren Blek, Matthew’s sister, included this verse in her pair of shoes:

As long as we live,

they too will live

for they are a part of us

as long as we remember them.