Boardwalk march draws awareness to gun violence

Marcy Maxwell of Millsboro knows the impact of gun violence painfully well. She has lost two sons – one to suicide, the other to a random gang shooting in New Jersey.

Maxwell wore the names of both sons, Brian and Matt, on her orange shirt for the Moms Demand Action for Gun Safety in America march up the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk June 7.

“I’m trying to do as much as I can to enlighten people,” she said. “It feels better to put myself out and try to help someone.”

This was the second year Moms Demand Action took its message to the Boardwalk.

The first weekend in June is National Gun Violence Awareness Weekend. It was started in memory of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed on a Chicago playground one week after she marched in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. Her birthday was June 2.

Pendleton’s friends decided to wear orange to honor her life, and the lives of other gun violence victims, on her birthday weekend. Moms Demand Action has continued the tradition.

“We wear orange because it stands out. Hunters and hikers wear it to increase visibility and reduce accidental shootings. We wear it to say, ‘Don’t shoot me,’” said Sherrie Walker of Moms Demand Action.

“Many of us in this group have lost loved ones, children, nieces, nephews and friends to gun violence. We want to honor those lives and the survivors, parents and family members,” Walker said.

Walker said gun violence is now the No. 1 killer of children in America. She said the group’s goal is to reduce that. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to live in fear,” she said.

She said Moms Demand Action advocates for responsible gun ownership and gun safety, not for removing guns from homes.

Maxwell said she attends monthly meetings with others who have been impacted by gun violence. But, she said, more needs to be done.

She said the statistics for gun violence outside the U.S. are very low. 

“[It’s] just absurd that we’re dealing with this,” she said.