Chappaqua Vigil Calls for End to Gun Violence Three Years After Newtown
It was three years ago Monday that Americans learned of the massacre of children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The gunman entered the nearby school and killed 20 first-graders and six school staff members before turning the gun on himself.
The elementary school has since been demolished, but the memory of the massacre remains vividly in the minds of many as new shootings at schools and many other public spaces make news headlines across the country on a regular basis.
On Sunday, dozens of Westchester residents packed the First Congregational Church of Chappaqua for a candlelight vigil for victims of gun violence.
The event, sponsored by Chappaqua Cares and Inside Chappaqua Magazine, featured several local speakers and prayers by religious leaders of various faiths.
“The statistics given say that since Sandy Hook massacre, 30,000 people have died in each of the past three years from gun-related violence,” said First Congregational Church’s Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs.
Gun violence deaths affect communities like ripples in a lake when a pebble is dropped in to it, Jacobs said, affecting everyone in the victim’s life.
“It is not about the numbers, it is about the people whose lives are forever changed when someone dies,” she said.
Among those who spoke was New Castle Police Chief Charles Ferry, who recounted the recent killing of law enforcement officers, such as Colorado police officer Garrett Swasey who died responding to last month’s shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs.
“When an officer is killed, all police officers mourn,” Ferry said. “Gun violence knows no boundaries, so we all know that on any given day that could be any of us. No matter what size a municipality is, they can be a subject of one of these terrible incidents.”
New Castle Supervisor Robert Greenstein told those on hand that gun violence can happen anywhere and that it had to be tackled at the local level just as the drunk driving epidemic was in the 1980s.
“Mothers against Drunk Driving and other local groups joined forces with legislators and together they made it unacceptable and illegal to drive drunk and not buckle up,” Greenstein said. “Together, the voices of small towns across America can make a loud and clear statement: we must stop gun violence.”
But it was the testimonials from family and friends of gun violence victims that carried the most weight, such as Gisela Marin, who lost her only daughter, 19-year-old Jessica Santos, to a random drive-by shooting in Yonkers in 2006.
Santos was a student at the University of New Haven at the time, where she was studying criminal justice.
“She was my joy, my reason for living, for working so hard and doing everything in my power to ensure she had everything she needed and more,” Marin said.
Santos was shot while standing outside a neighborhood deli with friends, just hours after being with her mother. The 17-year-old later convicted for shooting Santos had an illegal gun, Marin said.
“He robbed me of my life, my joy and seeing Jessica’s dream fulfilled,” Marin said. “But most of all, my identity as someone’s mom. Instead of planning my daughter’s return to college, I had to prepare a funeral.”
The event ended with a candle lighting while bells tolled overhead, and the placement of tags with the names of gun violence victims on trees in the front of the church.
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