Only days after a 7-year-old was shot in the head during a 4th of July gunfire exchange, Tampa activists are speaking up against gun violence by engaging their local neighborhoods.
DJs played tunes, and families brought their children to enjoy some free lunch hot off the grill while they heard stories from families of gun violence victims, urging them to become educated and speak out. Johnny Johnson is the Vice President of Rise Up for Peace: Community Against Gun Violence, and was wearing the face of his son, Jayquan Johnson on his shirt, who had lost his life to gun violence at the age of 17.
“He’s a Brandon High School student where the mom hid the guns and what have you. And today would have been his 24th birthday. So just in keeping his memory alive and making sure hopefully no other family or parent will have to deal with what me and my family have been through.”
Johnson pointed out that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the United States.
“As adults and society, we are failing our youth at a high rate. So it’s up to the adults in the community, the ones with their head on their shoulders, to make those choices. Not everything we face we can change, but we can’t change nothing until we face it. And gun violence is a human’s right issue with Rise Up for Peace because our safety and security have impeded on, and every function of our life rather than going to the grocery store or a place of worship, either, or this weekend a seven year old at the local beach for a holiday.”
Life-size cardboard cutouts of gun violence victims from around the state stood in each corner of the picnic pavilion at Ragan Park, last Saturday. Derek Graham is a volunteer with Rise Up For Peace and has lost several close friends to gun violence. And with a new law allowing Floridians to carry a gun without a permit, he said voting in upcoming elections is critical to realizing change.
“Your child is not exempt from this. He can be standing next to somebody- a childhood friend that’s in that life, and he’s not; and he can be targeted. So we need to argue more at the Florida legislature about what’s going on with permitless carry about the amount of guns being produced, and made, and sold. And so this is just not an East Tampa problem. It’s not just a state problem. It’s a United States problem. And we all need to get out and we all need to vote, and we all need to say something.”
Grahams said police claim that many children are finding guns in unlocked cars, so securing firearms and vehicles is important now more than ever.
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