Anthony Brown. Sherrie Ann Boyd. Ross Alameddine. Christopher Carter. Ryan Clark. Leslie Sherman.
These six individuals were included in a list of names of the people who were killed by gun violence since last year’s tragedy in Newtown, Conn. On Monday, gun control advocates, survivors, and family members of victims began an around-the-clock vigil on Capitol Hill to read a list of names of individuals who ranged from children to adults, all from different parts of the country, who have died at the hands of a gun.
People in support of the vigil, which is called NoMoreNames, will continue the project all week, or “until we get action from our Congressional leaders,” Laurie Haas, whose daughter was shot in the Virginia Tech massacre, said Tuesday at the event.
On the sixth anniversary of the Virginia Tech campus shooting, Colin Goddard, who was shot four times on that April morning in 2007, said he has lobbied for several years to “insure we do a better job of keeping guns away from dangerous people.”
“Let every member of Congress hear the names of those killed six years ago. Let every member of Congress hear the names of all the Americans killed since Newtown,” Goddard said. “To see such violence continually occurring in this country and no action at the federal level is deeply irresponsible and unacceptable.”
Survivors from the shootings in Tucson, Ariz., Aurora, Colo., and Newtown attended the event alongside family members and survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre. “Six years ago, in Blacksburg on the campus of Virginia Tech, 32 students and faculty were shot and killed by someone who should not have had a gun,” Haas said. “We have not forgotten. The nation has not forgotten, and will not forget. We are mindful of all the victims of gun violence whose names are being read here today,” said Peter Read, the father of another student victim. “And we’re mindful, too, of the the victims of violence even up to yesterday at Boston.” The American flag was shown at half-staff to commemorate the lives lost in Boston on Monday after explosive devices killed at least three people and wounded more than 100 individuals standing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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