Gun Control: Hadiya Pendleton

My pastor, Clarence Laney, JR, in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting stated that America gets angry and wants to do something about gun control when multiple people are killed at the same time, but what about people who are murdered every day. We should be just as angry if one person was killed” Even though I was paraphrasing, what he said resonates in my ear when I think about people such as Hadiya Pendleton how was killed by a gunman in Chicago, IL. Believe it or not, she is the 42nd victim who was murder in 2013 in Chicago. That means 42 people in just one month. In 2012 506 people were murdered in Chicago, but America didn’t get angry and wanted to do something about gun control for these victims. We don’t even get angry about local shootings, because it is a common thing to hear. Yet, it had to take 20 children and 7 educators in an Elementary School for America to rally for gun control. It is so mind boggling.

The family of Hadiya Pendleton has become well-known advocates of gun control. Hadiya, who was 15 years old, was an honor student and band majorette at Kings College Prep School in Chicago, IL. Her death made national news because she performed with her band at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration parade. Two days after her performance she was died. Nathaniel Pendleton, Hadiya’s father said that she had been ecstatic to participate in the inaugural festivities. He stated in an interview that "It was one of the great things. She had been talking about it way before the inauguration, way before the election." Hadiya and her friends were mistaken to be members of a rival gang in the neighborhood where Kings College Prep School is.

Whether it is one person, or 28, families all across the nation needs to join together and proclaim that enough is enough. I could be the next victim of a shooting. You could too. Would you want somebody to be an advocate for safety on your behalf?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/31/justice/illinois-teen-shot/index.html