By Crystal Donaldson
NORMAL – In honor of the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, Bloomington Normal high school students organized a rally at Uptown Circle in Normal.
The rally, attended by about 100 students and community members, aimed to bring awareness to gun reform and urged citizens to do their part by calling lawmakers.
The speakers at the event stressed voting lawmakers out if they do not change the gun laws.
“We want peace,” said Tristan Bixby, a junior at Normal Community High School. “We want safety. For me, I really want people to be able to have this conversation in a peaceful manner. It’s very, very important that we listen in order to understand, rather than listening in order to respond.”
Bixby said she’s lucky her brother survived a school shooting in 2012 at Normal Community.
“I almost consider myself lucky because I still have him today and I can still talk to him. He still annoys me, but he’s my brother so I love him. I’ve only seen like the half of it. It’s insane that people go through any more of this.”
The students plan to hold a workshop at the Normal Public Library on April 25th to encourage residents to register to vote and to call lawmakers. The students also plan to hold a town hall meeting in Normal Community’s auditorium to discuss further means of change on May 6th.
Crystal Donaldson can be reached at [email protected]
