Audrea Hickman son Jarrin was murdered on April 17, 2020.
She shared her story during a rally as part of the campaign Moms are demanding action and students are demanding action Annual Advocacy Day at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday. About a hundred people wearing red T-shirts gathered for a rally on Wednesday morning at Trinity Episcopal Church to start the day.
“The young men he engaged were able to do what they did because they had access to illegal weapons,” Hickman said. “This is what we want to stop. We want to take guns away from people who shouldn’t have them. … Gun violence is a domino effect that affects everyone.”
Gun Violence Prevention Act
Several gun violence prevention bills have been introduced in the Ohio Statehouse this year:
- State Reps. Michele Grim of Toledo and Munira Abdullahi of Columbus have introduced a bill that would prohibit a person who has been charged or convicted of a first-degree misdemeanor for domestic violence from possessing a firearm.
- State Reps. Richard Brown, D-Canal Winchester, and Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, have introduced a bill that would repeal the state’s concealed carry ban law and restore a law requiring a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public places.
- State Reps. Phil Robinson, D-Solon, and Isaacsohn introduced the bill Make background checks mandatory for all firearm sales, including private sales.
- State Reps. Darnell T. Brewer, D-Cleveland, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights and Abdullahi, have introduced a bill that would designate gun violence as a public health crisis and create an Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.
- Brewer also introduced a bill that would create the Ohio Task Force on Gun Violence.
“In Ohio, you can still own a gun even if you have a domestic violence conviction. This is absurd,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said.
Shooting in Parkland
Nina Greenberg remembers being worried that there would be a shooting at her high school in Sylvania after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Orlando, Florida, that killed 17 people.
“These thoughts caused me so much anxiety that I often thought about escape routes or how to quickly text my parents. I love them in case there is a shooting at my school,” she said.
Greenberg currently serves as president of the Ohio State University chapter of Student Demand Action and advocates for commonsense gun laws.
“My generation, we are constantly afraid of being shot in our schools and communities, in our homes,” she said. “Young people are bearing the brunt of this crisis.”
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, she told how she attended Moms’ Demands Day in 2018, three months after the Parkland shooting – a few months before she was elected to the House of Representatives.
“I advocated for this issue because I felt it was important to my community and it was important to me as a mother of three children,” she said.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children in the United States.
“This is crazy,” Russo said. “But this is where we are today and our children deserve so much better.[…]Our children should not die because of gun violence in our community.”
In 2021, firearms accounted for almost one in five child deaths (ages 1-18), and almost 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wonder database.
Ohioans want stricter gun laws
AND Suffolk University/USA Today Poll last summer showed that 92% of Ohioans want mandatory background checks for firearm purchases – including 99% of Democrats and 88% of Republicans.
Poll conducted by Suffolk University/USA Today a survey of 500 registered Ohio voters was conducted by telephone and have a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill in 2022 that would address this got rid of all training, background checks and permit requirements to carry a concealed weapon.
“So despite the gerry-manipulated majority of extremists who seem to be hiding behind – that’s what I call – special interest groups, we know that most people are in that position,” she said. “…In Ohio, universal background checks are more popular than apple pie. I mean, it’s a matter of common sense.
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