Camden County Community Demands Change On National Gun Violence Awareness Day
HADDON HEIGHTS, N.J. (CBS) -- The Camden County community came together Friday evening to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day and demand change.
"I am a mother who lost a child to gun violence," Carla Reyes Miller said.
Next week is the 11th anniversary of the murder of Carla Reyes Miller's son, Kevin.
"He was 19," she said. "The pain is still as if it was yesterday."
She was among dozens of people who gathered at Haddon Heights Park Friday night, enjoying music and eating snacks. Many people wore orange for Gun Violence Awareness Day.
"Orange is the color that hunters wear to be protected so they won't be shot. They'll be seen and not shot. So we wear this as a sign: don't shoot," said Lisa Winkler with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Winkler handed out orange ribbons and later collected them to create a string of hanging ribbons, each with a message of hope.
"We've asked people: What would the world look like if we had no gun violence?" Winkler said.
Curbing gun violence is what U.S. Congressmember Donald Norcross says he's been fighting for in Washington.
"We're gonna keep doing it. We're gonna do it until we save those kids, those people who are being slaughtered, unlike anywhere else in the world," Norcross said.
Why is it so difficult to get gun legislation passed?
"I gotta call it out. On the other side of the aisle, almost in mass, blindly go down the street. When you talk to them privately, many of them say, 'hey, we can take this common-sense step but we'll get killed. They'll come after us and I'll lose our seat,'" Norcross said.
Norcross says a bill he's cosponsoring is expected to be introduced next week to strengthen gun laws. He says that includes the banning of assault weapons, like the one used in the Texas school shooting.