Garnell Whitfield Jr., son of 86-year-old Buffalo, New York, mass shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, told the crowd, “We were being naïve to think that it couldn’t happen to us. And until it happened to us, we were sitting on the sidelines.”
“Guns by themselves are only one aspect of a much more insidious problem in America,” he said, calling out the systems he said radicalize mass gunmen, “filling them with weapons and hate-fueled rhetoric.”
“Through their inaction they’re giving their tacit approval,” he said, demanding the passage of an anti-white supremacy hate crime bill.
The Rev. Denise Walden-Glenn, whose brother died of gun violence in Buffalo, addressed the crowd ahead of Whitfield.
She said she’s “working tirelessly to figure out long-term, sustainable solutions” to address gun violence and issues that plague Black and Brown communities across the U.S.
“We need a national government that understands equity,” she said. “We are tired of them not valuing us.”
She added, “If they don’t give us what we ask for, we will vote them out.”