Gettysburg Connection shares thousands of photos of Adams County and Gettysburg taken by our creative staff members. Please click here to start enjoying them. Also, please check out our photography contest.

Commemorative vigil held for victims of gun violence

Almost 100 Adams County community members, many holding signs and wearing orange shirts, gathered for a “Stand for Children” vigil walk and special service in commemoration of victims of gun violence on the first anniversary of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.

Organized by Gettysburg for Gun Sense, in collaboration with the YWCA Gettysburg & Adams County and the United Lutheran Seminary, the participants walked from the YWCA to the seminary campus and gathered at the chapel for a moving service to honor children and victims of gun violence in all walks of life, singing songs and reading out loud the names of the 19 children and two teachers killed in the Uvalde shooting. 

gguns8

Speakers at the service emphasized the importance of focusing on children, saying gun violence is the single greatest killer of children in the United States and that gun violence kills more children than either disease or automobile accidents.

The group distributed safe gun storage handouts, as well as contact information for legislators and pre-printed postcards to send to Congress and the State House, asking for sensible gun laws. 

“Our walk is short, but the walk of families who lose a child to gun violence is a lifetime of grief,” said Pastor Judy Young, co-founder of the organization.

According to Young, the majority of US residents want gun law reform and are in favor of universal background checks.  Several gun safety bills are currently before the PA legislature, and others passed the House and are currently before the Senate.

Young said four per 100,000 people die from gun violence in the U.S., 18 times the average rate of gun deaths in other developed countries. In 2021, 26,328 people were lost to gun suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In that same year, Young said, 20,958 people died from gun homicide.

Eighty-one percent of those murders in the U.S. were committed with a firearm, while 55% of suicides were by firearm.  “In Pennsylvania, an AR-15, like all other long guns, can be purchased in a ‘private sale’ with no background check required,” said Young.

Young said U.S. residents currently are armed with 120 firearms per 100 people.  “Most gun owners are responsible, but some are not,” she said, and “keeping dangerous weapons from getting into those dangerous hands” is the goal.

Gettysburg for Gun Sense was organized in 2015, in commemoration of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and since then has distributed safe gun storage information and advocated for public health solutions and sensible gun laws.

To learn more about Gettysburg for Gun Sense and its mission, please visit https://www.facebook.com/gettysburg4gunsense.

Photos by Donate Gardner. Click on any image to start the slideshow.

donate gardner 1
+ posts

Donate Gardner is a freelance journalist who came to Gettysburg in 2021 from Montgomery County, Maryland.
A former linguist-turned-legal professional, Donate recently retired from the corporate world and is eager to support her new community in a variety of ways. She currently serves as the news communicator for the Adams County migrant outreach program, Pasa La Voz.
As an immigrant born, raised, and educated in Germany, Donate still maintains a strong connection to the German language as a writer and translator. Donate is an active musician and has made her new home in Gettysburg available to host house concerts for traveling musicians and local artists in need of support. Donate and her husband have two daughters and three grandchildren.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x