Advocates across Massachusetts held events Saturday to honor the lives of people affected by gun violence and push for more reforms, including one community gathering in Roxbury where electeds and professional athletes were scheduled to make an appearance.
Shootings across the country have become nearly synonymous with daily life, and mass casualty events have occurred at a regular pace in the United States since two gunmen walked into Columbine High School in 1999 and killed 13 people. More recently, a gruesome shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 students and two teachers dead in May 2022.
But mass shootings make up only 1% of gun deaths in the United States, said Angela Christiana of Moms Demand Action, one of the organizers of the local “Wear Orange” event in Roxbury.
“Today we gather in unity wearing orange across the country, a symbol of reverence for every precious whole life affected by gun violence. It’s a powerful statement to wear orange, it’s a call for change,” Christiana said to a meeting hall packed with locals at the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry.
The event featured a handful of Patriots players, who attended to show their support, including rookies Ja’Whaun Bentley, Chad Ryland, Sidy Sow, Demario Douglas, and Malik Cunningham.
The gathering was one of several across Massachusetts, including events scheduled in Pittsfield, Brockton, and Amesbury. More gatherings were planned for Sunday and a handful were held on Friday.
The push for action on gun violence comes as Boston experienced 42 shooting incidents in the first five months of 2023, according to Boston Police Department data.
Pace McConkie Jr., policy and advocacy manager at the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, said “peace is possible.”
“There are moments in this fight where it feels like it’s not,” McConkie told the crowd in Roxbury. “Let me remind you that it is. And for those in this room that have had their peace stripped from them with a loved one being taken from them by violence, know that peace in your life is possible.”
Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Massachusetts as having the sixth-strongest gun laws in the country and the lowest rate of gun deaths.
The Bay State, according to the organization, is one of only a few that bars gun purchases by people with outstanding warrants and requires secure storage for any firearm not in the owner’s immediate control.
Only 9% of adults in Massachusetts live in a household with a firearm, marking the second-lowest rate of gun ownership in the country, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
But Massachusetts could go farther, the organization says, including by regulating ghost gun parts that cannot be sold without serial numbers and a background check.
That’s something U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss is hoping Congress can address.
“Ghost guns have become a real problem because manufacturers are selling parts to weapons online direct to consumer in a way that makes them un-serialized and therefore untraceable and not subject to existing federal and state laws,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the Herald in an interview Saturday.
Auchincloss plans to attend a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force forum on Monday where a series of advocates, researchers, and gun owners plan to discuss ways to regulate ghost guns.
“We really have to crack down on ghost guns and we actually have a lot of laws in the books to do it. Now, it’s about enforcement,” he said.
