Calls for action at vigil to honor gun victims
Families seek peace as Sandy Hook anniversary nears
Paulette Brown and her family walked into St. Ignatius Church on Sunday afternoon and quietly shuffled into a pew saved for special guests.
“Reserved for Survivors of Gun Violence,” read the piece of paper taped to the edge of their seats.
Days before the sixth anniversary of one of the country’s most devastating mass shootings — the massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — two gun violence advocacy organizations, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, held a vigil at the San Francisco church to honor those killed by gun violence.
Brown was there to honor her son, Aubrey Abrakasa.
His killer, she said, still has not been arrested.
“My son’s case should have been solved by now,” she said. “I’m still in the battlefield. I’m my son’s only voice.”
Sitting in the pews across from Brown were House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who have pledged to pass legislation that would help end gun violence in the country. On Sunday, the lawmakers said they were buoyed by the results of the midterm elections — in which the Democrats took control of the House — and said legislative changes are finally on the horizon.
Pelosi told the crowd that she is working on a gun violence prevention bill that will be as “bipartisan as possible.”
“This is commonsense gun violence prevention,” she said. “This is not just about the highprofile events, as tragic as they are. It’s about what happens every single day in our country.”
Sunday’s vigil was one of 100 nationwide timed around the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. Speakers at the San Francisco event called on lawmakers to take action on gun violence. They repeatedly referenced one jarring statistic: Nearly 100 Americans are shot and killed every day, with hundreds more wounded.
“I lost friends and family to gun violence, and as a kid, I thought that was normal,” Mayor London Breed said. “In our schools they don’t only have earthquake drills, but gun drills. It’s time for a change. A change so that no other parent has to bury their child again.”
At the end of the hour-long vigil, Supervisor Catherine Stefani, director of the local chapter of Moms Demand Action, asked everyone in attendance who had lost a loved one to gun violence to stand. One by one, about a dozen people stood up to talk about their children, nieces, nephews and friends who had been killed. Some spoke of the number of bullets that struck their loved ones; one speaker told of the screams from a child who just learned his father had died.
One woman who stood up was Clare Senchyna, whose 26-yearold son, Camilo, was killed in the Mission District a few years ago, the day after he graduated from paramedic school.
“My son was killed four years ago, but we (his family) are still alive, and we remember him,” Senchyna said, wearing a red Moms Demand Action shirt. “It’s important to remember them publicly. Sandy Hook should have been a turning point.”
Mary Senchyna, Camilo’s aunt, said the midterm elections made her hopeful that something will finally change.
“It’s painful,” she said. “I come every year, but I feel much more hopeful this year.”