Rally attendees demand a future free of gun violence
One week after Hadiya Pendleton, 15, marched in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park. It was her friends who commemorated her life following the tragedy by wearing orange, symbolizing a color worn by hunters in the woods to protect themselves and others.
Orange has become the defining color of the gun violence prevention movement now observed every June and expanded to three days to mark of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
This year, as part of the Wear Orange Weekend and in response to Uvalde and National Gun Violence Awareness Day, a rally and candlelight vigil was held Saturday at Eisenhower Park in Seal Beach. The event was hosted by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, HB Huddle, and WAVE (Women For American Values and Ethics).
About 300 people from around Orange County attended the local rally Saturday night to demand a future free from gun violence.
“We’re just outraged, just had enough,” said Alfonso Galvez, a resident of Trabuco Canyon who took part in the rally. “Sandy Hook wasn’t enough, didn’t learn enough — it seems like we’re back to square one.”
Susie Galvez said the country is in crisis and “thoughts and prayers without action is outrageous. We need to protect our children and future children, I don’t want to be the country that other countries look at as an example of how not to be. We have to do better.”
Patricia Boe, the local group lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, became involved in the group after the February 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida. She is the mother of two children who are in elementary school today.
“It was my moment of enough,” said Boe. “I can’t just sit here on the sidelines and do nothing. I had to do something for my children.
“Mass shootings that you see on TV are what garner big headlines, but 110 people are shot and killed every day, more than twice that will be shot and wounded,” Boe said. “Guns are the leading cause of death [of children and teens] in America, the only country in the world that this happens on a daily basis.
“We can enact common sense safety measures that save lives of children and community members who are disproportionately impacted by gun violence and maintain the 2nd Amendment. We can’t solve gun violence without including systemic racism and hate, it’s all tied together,” said Boe.
“After I dropped off my kids at school after the Uvalde shooting/massacre, I sat in my car and cried, in America we’re not guaranteed we will pick them up.”
Among the event’s speakers that included survivors and family members affected by gun violence along with students, elected officials and candidates was U.S. Rep. Katie Porter.
“I am fed up! There are solutions to gun violence,” shouted Porter. “Enough is enough of the lack of political courage.”
A pediatric nurse from Rancho Santa Margarita, Teresa Calvillo, said adults are “supposed to be protecting our kids, keeping them safe and keeping them out of the hospital. Due to certain disregard of certain politicians, they’re putting them in the hospital.”
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