Hundreds of people packed Plum Street on Saturday at a 'March For Our Lives' rally to hear speakers voice their concerns for safety and question political motives surrounding gun legislation.
The rally was organized by Students for Gun Legislation and March For Our Lives, which first organized widespread protests in 2018 following a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Cincinnati physician Dr. Abbie Guttenberg Youkilis is the aunt of Jaime Guttenberg, a 14-year-old who was shot and killed in a hallway while fleeing a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She told attendees that some of them would become victims or survivors if efforts aren’t made to stop the ongoing gun violence nationwide.
“When you lose someone you love due to organ destruction from bullets, you experience a unique version of what is taught in psychology class: the five stages of grief,” Youkilis said.
Youkilis appeared with her mother, Ethel Guttenberg, who said her granddaughter’s favorite quote was, “Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination.” She encouraged attendees to vote to “make this country safe again.”
“Don’t tell me we can’t strike a better balance between the freedom to live and the freedom to own guns,” Guttenberg said.
Student Mohammed Uzair talked about the “bystander effect,” which occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency. He called for people to break free from the effect.
“What happens when people decide to march, to march for our lives, to march in front of City Hall, to fight for our rights?" he said. "Well, what happens is that people will see it and people will notice and people will join us because my voice doesn’t just extend through this microphone, it extends through all of you to all the people who aren’t here today.”
Cincinnati officials declared gun violence a public health crisis in January. Victims of gun violence are disproportionately Black, making up 87% of all homicide victims in Cincinnati last year.
Jackie Jackson is the senior pastor at Come As You Are Reach-Out Ministries. He’s lost eight family members due to gun violence, and he himself was shot when he was only 10 years old.
“I’m going to fight with everything that I have within me to make sure that we can make our children safe from gun violence,” Jackson said.
So far in 2022, 246 mass shootings and 27 school shootings have occurred in the United States. Xavier University student Shontelle Johnson says she wants to know that her loved ones can get home safe and says the country has become desensitized to gun violence.
“When am I going to get the rights I deserve? You deserve better than to feel fear and panic in the place that we call home,” Johnson said.
Last Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Fountain Square calling for gun restrictions.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine plans to sign a bill that would reduce the number of hours required for armed school employees from more than 700 to 24. On Monday, an Ohio law allowing anyone over 21 to carry a concealed weapon in public goes into effect.
This story has been updated to correct the name of Jaime Guttenberg. The story originally referred to her as "Jamie Guttenberg."
