Anti-gun violence march, gun buy-back planned in Chicago

Demonstrators round Chicagoland are anticipated to hit the streets to protest weapons as a part of demonstrations planned nationwide Saturday. Meanwhile, the town pays to get weapons off the streets in a separate firearm-focused effort Saturday.

Organizers mentioned hundreds of individuals are anticipated to attend the March for Our Lives rally planned for midday at Federal Plaza. The Chicago Police Department will host a no-questions-asked, $100 reward gun turn-in program at Auburn Gresham’s St. Sabina Catholic Church from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The two separate occasions observe two main mass shootings which have captivated the nation: the racist assault that killed 10 in a Buffalo grocery retailer and the capturing spree that killed 19 schoolchildren and two academics at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary faculty.

“We’re all affected by the fact that we don’t have commonsense gun laws in our country,” mentioned one of many march organizers, 19-year-old Lara Haciosmanoglu. “We have to be a united front in order for people in positions of power to do anything about it.”

[ In between study hall and bedtime, local teens plan March for Our Lives Chicago rally ]

Saturday’s rally will coincide with greater than 500 different planned March for Our Lives demonstrations throughout the nation, Haciosmanoglu mentioned. Marches are additionally planned in Highland Park, Crystal Lake, Palatine, Elgin, St. Charles, Downers Grove and DeKalb, in keeping with the group’s web site.

Haciosmanoglu remembered March for Our Life’s 2018 protest, after which “nothing really happened” to vary gun legal guidelines although individuals throughout the nation took to the streets, she mentioned.

“This time is different, though. We’re angry. We’re no longer complacent. We need the change now, and we’re demanding it,” the second-year DePaul University scholar mentioned. Haciosmanoglu inspired demonstrators to convey gadgets for mutual assist donation, akin to child formulation, diapers and nonperishable meals.

[ Young activists rally for gun reform at March for Our Lives Chicago march in Union Park ]

Elsewhere in Chicago, a church and police are teaming as much as attempt to fight native gun violence by paying individuals for his or her firearms. At the CPD and St. Sabina gun turn-in, individuals who hand over a firearm will get $100 present card from the town, no questions requested.

“Guns are the way we are now handling our anger in our country,” St. Sabina pastor the Rev. Michael Pfleger mentioned. “Any gun you get off the street is a gun that can’t shoot somebody.”

Pfleger hopes the cash-incentive might be particularly engaging to gun holders as gasoline and meals costs see inflation. People who convey in weapons will stay nameless, he mentioned.

[ Evanston buyback event nets 53 guns, ammunition a week after fatal shooting ]

Past St. Sabina gun turn-ins have hauled in over 300 firearms, Pfleger mentioned. The church can even provide sign-ups for its mentorship and job program, he added.

St. Sabina will give an additional $100 to anybody who brings in an assault-style weapon, Pfleger mentioned.

“Why are we, who call ourselves a civilized country, selling weapons of war to people on the street? It’s insane to me,” he mentioned. He desires to see high-capacity weapons and AR- and AK-style weapons banned.

People who don’t use or need the weapons they’ve, and are afraid of accidents, gun thefts and suicide, ought to flip in their firearms, mentioned CPD Community Policing Director Glen Brooks.

“Guns aren’t like a carton of milk. There is no way to properly dispose of your guns,” Brooks mentioned, including that the town destroys turned-in weapons.

The turn-in additionally will give $10 to individuals who convey in realistic-looking duplicate weapons, like BB weapons, he mentioned. Brooks emphasised that the turn-in program might be nameless.

“We’re not going to be asking people questions of where they got the gun, how they the gun and so forth,” he mentioned. The metropolis plans to host extra turn-in occasions quickly.

The gun turn-in occasion takes place at St. Sabina, 1210 W. 78th St., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.