Volunteers with the nonprofit group Florida Moms Demand Action hosted several events across the state, including in Miami, to raise awareness about gun violence and to call on the Florida legislature to take action on gun safety measures.
“We don’t have an expiration date when it comes down to our pain. We suffer every day, constantly,” attendee Romania Dukes said.
“We just need to get together and stop all this violence,” attendee Tanya Fincher said. “It’s a shame how mothers have to come together for stuff like this to bury their kids instead of their kids burying them.”
Dukes and Fincher are both mothers who lost their sons to gun violence in Miami-Dade County.
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Though nothing will bring their children back or stop the heartbreak they feel every day, they’re channeling their efforts to support the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action.
Volunteers from the nonprofit hosted events in 10 different cities across the state. They say they’re hoping the message is heard in the state capital to consider common sense gun safety measures.
“We’re about gun safety, not trying to take anyone’s guns. We just want safety inside the home,” Dukes said.
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“Right now we’re trying to make sure that, in Tallahassee specifically, there is an urgency to address gun laws, which put our communities at risk,” Sarai Cruz, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action said.
Cruz says their goal is to bring attention to the gun violence in the county and their priority is to support gun safety bills, starting with repealing Florida’s Shoot First Law.
“We think it’s an opportunity for us to come together and address the issues we’re facing in the community. We have shootings every day in North Miami and South Dade, where I live, and yet nothing is being done proactively to start that and I think that’s what we’re trying to do here. To make sure everyone is really aware of that," Cruz said.
On Sunday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was being presented with a donation to go toward the county’s Peace and Prosperity Plan, which was created to address the underlying cause of gun violence in the county.
