Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe announced plans to present a resolution supporting gun safety to the City Commission during a demonstration on Bo Diddley Community Plaza on Saturday.
The demonstration was held to urge Rep. Ted Yoho, of Gainesville, to support laws to reduce gun violence.
Lowe said Gainesville can advocate to federal and state legislatures to approve regulation that includes the removal of loopholes in background checks and limits on magazine capacity.
“Gun violence is a serious problem in our country,” he said. “I think we need a comprehensive approach to that problem that includes a regulation of firearms.”
The demonstration was organized by Karen Epple, the MoveOn.org Gainesville council coordinator.
Epple, 59, said both Yoho and Sen. Bill Nelson will be voting on bills regarding gun violence, and she wanted them to know their constituents want gun control.
“Every day, 270 people in the United States are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and police interventions,” she said.
More than 30 people attended Saturday’s demonstration. Attendees had the option to wear name tags with the number of individuals they know who have been affected by gun violence. Epple wore the number three.
“My sister and my mother both were held at gunpoint by men who supposedly loved them,” she said. “My brother was a police officer, and several times he had people try to shoot him.”
Alachua County School Board chair Eileen Roy was one of the speakers at the event.
“We can’t stand idle and not do anything when 20 kids are killed,” she said. “Everybody is worried about the schools, and I’m responsible for the schools.”
Also present was a impersonator acting as Abraham Lincoln, who Epple said was a victim of gun violence.
Although impersonator Lew Welge, 57, was not wearing a name tag with a number, he said his alcoholic father once held him and his mother at gunpoint.
“If we had looked the wrong way or made a snide remark, my mother and I might both be dead,” he said.
Attendees had the opportunity to sign petitions supporting actions to reduce gun violence. The event ended with a candlelight vigil for victims.
