More than 1,000 people gathered in the Loop on Saturday to rally against gun violence, while dozens of others participated in a city gun turn-in program at a St. Sabina Church, in a day of initiative and advocacy to stop gun violence.
Millions of people took part in the March for Our Lives after the shooting in Parkland. Now, organizers are planning another march to call for an end to gun violence.
This story contains mentions of gun violence and domestic violence.
After nationwide firearm deaths reached a 20-year high in 2020, Evanston- and Illinois-based advocates are pushing for further implementation of gun-violence prevention policies.
Although gun violence increased nationally in 2020, some advocates say the issue doesn’t receive enough attention within the Evanston community, especially when it happens in Black and lower-income neighborhoods. Black men are eight times more likely to die by firearm homicide than the general population, according to a 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
Carolyn Murray, a gun control advocate and former 5th Ward aldermanic candidate, said City Council needs to take gun violence and its effects on the community more seriously.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
It’s a real conundrum for many on the Left; how to reconcile their desire for more gun control laws with their demand for less policing. After all, there’s not much point in putting more restrictions on gun ownership in place if the new laws aren’t going to be enforced, but if you believe that we’re already over-policed, then are more gun laws really the best way to address “gun violence”?
Democrats in Evanston, Illinois are wrestling with this dilemma, with some local politicians vowing to adopt an “intersectional approach” to the issue.