“We need everybody’s voice in this fight,” she said. “The more people that we have speaking out, contacting their legislatures and lawmakers, both in Columbus and Washington D.C., the more chance we have of actually getting some sort of gun safety legislation that will save lives.”
National Gun Violence Awareness Day is the first Friday in June and many wear orange between June 3 through June 5. Topics covered during the Friday rally at Courthouse Square included the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas and a House bill recently passed by the legislature that would allow teachers in the state to carry firearms with as little as 24 hours of training.
On Friday, the crowd chanted “Do Something” during the event, reminiscent of the call for action some yelled toward Gov. Mike DeWine in the hours following the Oregon District shooting calling for gun reform.
Joe Eaton, a regional contact with the Buckeye Firearms Association, an Ohio pro-gun organization, said Ohio laws are helping keep innocent people safe.
“The problem we have when we look at enacting additional restrictions on the honest people in the state of Ohio, we are limiting their options,” Eaton said. “And we can’t do that. We want to protect the rights of the crime victims to have every opportunity to decide on their own how they want to keep themselves and their families safe.”
He said there are already laws and punishments for people who use firearms illegally.
Donita Cosey, an Oregon District shooting survivor who lost a loved one in the attack, spoke at Friday’s event and recounted her experience that night.
“Gun casings just dropping on the ground as I am looking up at the shooter,” Cosey said. “I’m to this day not sure if the gunman thought he shot me, but as he passed me, all I remember is he was shooting people, people were running, people were screaming, running for their lives.”
She said when mass shootings take place, it reopens wounds and she experiences survivors’ guilt.
“I’m tired. We as survivors cannot heal from these types of events because it’s not stopping,” Cosey said.
Also on Friday, Kettering Mayor Peggy Lehner and members of the Kettering City Council sent an open letter to Gov. Mike DeWine asking that he veto the bill about arming teachers. They asked that he live up to his promise of gun safety measures he “committed to in the days following the Oregon District shooting.”
“Before we resort to arming our teachers, should we not, at the very least, live up to the promise of universal background checks and civil protection orders to keep weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill?” the letter asks. “Teachers are human and carry the same, if not more, stress than most. Teaching our precious children goes hand in hand with nurturing them, loving them and worry about them as if they were their own. And now, they are being saddled with providing unimaginable safeguards to protect their students from harm.”
“While we appreciate that each school board can make their own decisions, it is time to enforce proven universal gun reform measures that extend beyond our school buildings,” the letter says.
The governor on Thursday released a statement saying that he anticipates signing the bill.
“Last week I called on the General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow local school districts, if they so chose, to designate armed staff for school security and safety,” the statement says. “My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training. House Bill 99 accomplishes these goals, and I thank the General Assembly for passing this bill to protect Ohio children and teachers. I look forward to signing this important legislation.”
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