ENCINITAS – Birgen Grueskin and Bella Blaylock of Karlsbad will never forget the day in second grade when the shooter entered their Kelly Elementary School campus in Karlsbad in 2010.
Now students in their 20s, these young women could be seen advocating for common sense gun laws during the Wear Orange rally on Saturday in Encinitas.
Two women joined over 120 residents along Highway 101 on the North Shore at the event, one of several held across the country in memory of Wear Orange Weekend.
The event is held every June in memory of those injured in gun violence, and organizers noted a greater turnout this year after the devastating May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 students and two teachers.
“It kind of touches us more,” said Grueskin, a student at Arizona State University. “I really would like this to stop happening. That was [the 2010 shooting] 12 years ago and it will continue to happen without change. ”
The event was organized by members of the Moms Demand Action branch in North County, a national organization advocating for security measures to protect against gun violence. The group began with just four people, including resident Jesse Bry, after a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School 2018 in Parkland, Florida.
“It simply came to our notice then. The day after Uvalde, we were like, “People are going to want to do something,” so we gave them a place to land, “Bry said. let’s maintain a movement that transcends today. “
Congressman Mike Levin (CA-49), who spoke to those gathered about the need to increase common sense gun laws along with Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, noted that the US House of Representatives has made progress on important laws such as the Bipartisan Verification Act past 2021.
However, Levin said the upcoming elections will be important to ensure ongoing gun control reform at the national level.
“We still have those senators who don’t want to, I can’t see the reality – the reality that we have a unique crisis in this country that we can only proactively address, as we did in the state of California,” Levin said.
Residents who served in the armed forces also encouraged fellow veterans and military families to join the fight for common sense weapons policy, especially for safe storage, as people who oppose gun restrictions may be willing to obey them.
“We have a very legitimate and credible voice that we do not use. If you are a veteran, if you are a member of a military family, start talking about the requirements of stable possession of weapons, “said veteran Karin Brennan.
Joseph Rocha, a candidate for the 40th seat in the state senate and participant in Saturday’s event, described the need for more people to understand the importance of safety, training and accountability when it comes to firearms, speaking from their own military experience.
“This issue is important to me because of the huge loss of life we have seen, and especially the loss of life of young children. We have a responsibility as a state to prevent this from happening, ”Rocha said. “I have decided to join the army and defend my constitutional rights, but there is no constitutional right to mass murder of children.
The United States has experienced more than 230 mass shootings so far this year, according to The Washington Post, which is why the number of people who have experienced gun violence is growing every day.
Blaylock is one of those people, and while fortunately no one was killed during a shooting at her North County elementary school in 2010, the number of incidents of gun violence has since been too high to count. She wants to see change.
“Make it a little harder to get a gun so people who don’t use it for the right purposes can’t,” Blaylock said.
