Carl Hessler Jr., The Pottstown Mercury
NORRISTOWN — “Enough is enough!”
That was the message expressed with deep emotion from gun violence survivors, advocates for “commonsense” gun legislation and elected officials who gathered at a gun violence awareness rally in Montgomery County.
“I’m here to say enough is enough. It’s been enough for a long time now. Our children, our families, our teachers are traumatized. Our whole country is traumatized,” Dr. Monica D’Antonio, vice-president of the Norristown Area School Board and the political action committee chair of the Greater Norristown NAACP, said during an impassioned speech on the steps of the county courthouse on Friday.
“We’re living and raising and educating our children in a place where violence is so commonplace where the question of being shot is not ‘if’ but ‘when.’ It’s no surprise that we’re all living in a constant state of anxiety and fear. Enough is enough,” added D’Antonio, who also is a professor at Montgomery County Community College.
D’Antonio said she went through extensive training to become a teacher.
“What I was not trained for was combat. Enough is enough. When we say teachers are frontline workers we don’t mean frontline on a battlefield. When we say that teachers are heroes, we don’t mean using our bodies to shield our students from 300 rounds of ammunition. Enough is enough!” D’Antonio repeated to thunderous applause from rally attendees.
Officials said the rally, which coincided with National Gun Violence Awareness Day, was planned weeks before 19 children and two teachers were killed May 24 at a school in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old assailant who used a semi-automatic rifle.
Many at the rally wore orange which officials said is a symbolic reminder that with so few life-saving laws in place, everyone is at risk of gun violence. Some of the several dozen attendees carried signs that read, “Ban Assault Rifles” and “Children Deserve Gun Control Not Mass Shooter Drills.”
Speakers demanded gun reform that would ban assault-style weapons, raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, enact universal background checks for gun purchases and implement so-called “red flag” laws which temporarily remove guns from those who are at risk to themselves or others.
“We believe that everyone should be able to live a life free from gun violence. Because we have not solved this crisis, we’ve already lost too many people,” said Adam Garber, executive director of CeaseFirePA.
Garber and Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, chair of the county board of commissioners, referred to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found in 2020, gun violence became the No. 1 cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents.
“We stand at a crisis point today in our country, a point where horrific gun violence is becoming normalized,” said Arkoosh, a mother of three who as a physician cared for victims of gun violence.
“Unlike so many other complicated problems that we face in our world today, gun violence is a public health crisis and it’s one that we have solutions for. There is no mystery here, we know what to do. It’s a matter of actually doing it,” Arkoosh added.
Speakers acknowledged that no single policy is going to end gun violence.
“But enacting several commonsense and evidence-based policies can reduce gun deaths substantially over time,” Arkoosh maintained. “So many other countries have taken those steps and their deaths from gun violence have come down.”
Latrice Felix, clutching a photo of her son Alan Jamal Womack Jr. who died by gun violence in King of Prussia in 2020, said surviving relatives suffer pain, anxiety and grief.
“I struggle every day. My life has forever changed. I’m a part of a club that I don’t want to be a part of,” said Felix, adding she misses her son’s smile and she attends rallies to speak out against gun violence. “I’m going to keep working until we stop the gun violence, till we start to love each other. Let’s fight together to end this. Let’s work together for change. That is why I rally.”
Many of the advocates for gun reform said military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have “absolutely no place in our neighborhoods.” Speakers also pushed for funding that would expand community-based violence prevention, after school and mentoring programs.
Others criticized elected officials for not enacting gun-safety legislation even after mass shootings that occurred years ago at schools in Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla.
Zion Sykes, representing PA Youth Vote, said “it feels like almost every day there’s talk of another tragedy that just happened and we often see those with the power to assist in stopping these tragedies do nothing.” Sykes said citizens want action.
State Rep. Todd Stephens, a Republican who represents the 151st District that includes Horsham and all or parts of Montgomery, Lower Gwynedd and Upper Dublin townships, said, “We need bipartisan solutions.”
“We need to work together. We need leaders from both parties to come together, as we’ve done in the past. The gun violence numbers are staggering,” said Stephens, referring to one report that 61 people were shot last week in Philadelphia. “This is unacceptable and we must do more.”
U.S. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, the Democrat who represents the 4th District that includes most of Montgomery County and parts of Berks, offered some hope saying the U.S. House Judiciary Committee worked this week on a package of what she called “commonsense gun bills” that among other things would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle.
“We are at a fork in the road. I know that so many of us were crushed when nothing happened after Sandy Hook. But this is our moment. We have to take the road less traveled which is the road to saving our children’s lives. We have a responsibility to act,” said Dean.
But Dean indicated partisan positions were clear during a 10-hour committee hearing, describing what she called “absurd arguments from the other side of the aisle, insane, soul-crushing, idolization of gun arguments from the other side of the aisle.”
“America is hurting by the carnage we are seeing every single day. There are things we can do,” said U.S. Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat who represents the 5th District that includes Delaware County and a portion of Montgomery County.
Speakers urged voters to elect leaders who are committed to reducing gun violence.
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