Mother to lead march against gun violence
Poets, musicians, police officers and grieving mothers will gather Saturday at Renaissance Park to combat an issue they believe should unite everyone: senseless gun violence.
“The purpose of the event is to bring awareness to gun violence,” said Satedra Smith, whose son, Jordan Clark, 20, was shot to death in Chattanooga in August 2015. “I go out and speak with survivors and victims to let them know it’s OK to talk about their loved ones they lost to gun violence. We’re trying to take steps and make change for the community and
just keep moving along.”
The event, hosted by the national grassroots organization Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, begins at 9 a.m. at the Blue Goose Hollow Trail on Ninth Avenue in Chattanooga. From there, participants will walk to Ross’s Landing, finish at the Renaissance Park Pavilion by 10 a.m., and hear from survivors, musicians, poets, police officers and family members for the next hour and a half, Smith said.
Smith said anyone interested in attending should wear orange in honor of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-yearold Chicago student who was shot to death by an alleged gang member while hanging out at a park near her prep school in 2013. Today is Pendleton’s birthday and also National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Chattanooga is on pace to have a less violent year — with nearly 50 shootings and 12 homicides — than 2016, which saw the most homicides since 2001. At this point last year, Chattanooga had experienced 15 homicides. Nationwide, guns were responsible for nearly 13,000 homicides in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.