• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A memorial near the Washington Monument in Washington June 7, 2022, honors the 45,000 lives lost due to gun violence in 2020. (CNS photo/Leah Millis, Reuters)

‘Don’t look away,’ children plead to Congress in gun control message

June 7, 2022
By Rhina Guidos
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, U.S. Congress, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With the U.S. Capitol in the background, Jacob Kelly, 6, adjusted his little bulletproof vest against his chest.

He stood with other children who turned out June 6 to speak, they said, for their peers who no longer could: fourth graders gunned down a few days before in Uvalde, Texas, and children of Jacob’s age killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

“How many of us have to die … for lawmakers to do their job?” asked the young organizers of Students Demand Action, the first of several groups to arrive in Washington in early June for a week of protests demanding that U.S. lawmakers pass restrictions on high-powered weapons such as the ones that have been used in mass shootings, including at schools.

The week was set to culminate with a large March for Our Lives demonstration June 11, an event organized by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which experienced a mass killing of its own in 2018.

Jacob Kelly, 6, dons a bulletproof vest while participating in a rally supporting gun control in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington June 6, 2022. Parents, with their children nearby, gathered near the Capitol to call on Congress, particularly Republican senators, to push through restrictions against high-powered weapons that have been used in mass shootings. (CNS photo/Rhina Guidos)

The students were accompanied by groups of parents, including Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, which all shouted their slogan toward the Capitol: “Don’t look away!”

Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Democrats from Connecticut, spoke to the crowd and told them they were getting closer than ever on reaching some sort of bipartisan deal on gun control measures with Republican senators.

The deal may include expansion of mental health programs and increased resources for security at schools. But it may not have what gun control advocates such as the ones descending on Washington are calling for, namely expanding background checks, raising the age to purchase guns from 18 to 21 and banning certain weapons that have a high capacity to kill.

Several prelates representing various committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops June 3, in a letter to Congress, urged lawmakers to take action.

They mentioned the May 24 shooting in Uvalde when an 18-year-old walked into the elementary school with a high-powered rifle, leaving 19 students dead, mostly fourth graders, and their two teachers, as well as a mass shooting targeting Black people in a grocery store a few days before and a recent mass shooting at a medical building on the campus of a Catholic hospital.

“There is something deeply wrong with a culture where these acts of violence are increasingly common,” the bishops wrote. “There must be dialogue followed by concrete action to bring about a broader social renewal that addresses all aspects of the crisis, including mental health, the state of families, the valuation of life, the influence of entertainment and gaming industries, bullying, and the availability of firearms.”

They implored U.S. lawmakers to listen to the words of Pope Francis following the mass shooting in Uvalde and say “‘no more’ to the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons.”

On June 5, a day after celebrating a vigil Mass for the feast of Pentecost, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the followers of Christ, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, who has been tending to those affected by the shooting in Uvalde, implored the Holy Spirit’s help.

“With the rising of senseless deaths of innocent people, our legislators grow in fear of making new radical decisions to (save) lives,” he wrote on Twitter. “Holy Spirit give them courage to stand for life. Your power strengthens weak wills and selfish motivations to pursue the common good.”

At the student-led rally in Washington, Adriana Guzman, who was in from Mexico visiting her daughters who study in the U.S., stopped to listen to the young speakers and then to the politicians discussing gun control close to the Capitol.

“If what happened in Uvalde doesn’t cause pain, nothing can cause pain,” she told Catholic News Service.

She said it was particularly painful for her, seeing the community that borders her native country affected. Did people not care because the children came from farmworker families? she asked.

The availability of such easy access to guns made her worry for her daughters, she said. One is in college but the other attends high school in the U.S., and if schools can’t be safe, that puts into question safety in many public spaces including tourist attractions and workspaces, she said.

She nodded her head at the students calling for change, asking for protection.

“This has to change,” Guzman said.

Read More Respect Life

Planned Parenthood

Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops

Report: US abortions continue post-Dobbs rise in part due to telehealth

In retrial, judge acquits man charged in assault on pro-life protester

Supreme Court rules states can deny Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood

British Parliament ‘effectively decriminalizes’ abortion up to birth

Supreme Court takes up appeal from N.J. faith-based pregnancy centers

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rhina Guidos

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

  • Pope’s prayer intention for July: That the faithful might again learn how to discern

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

| Latest Local News |

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

Sister Ann Belz dies at 88

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

| Latest World News |

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit

Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

care of creation

Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

ICE

ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release

French woman hopes sharing mystical encounter with Minnesota Benedictine helps sainthood cause

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope
  • A Gift and a Connection to the Past
  • Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86
  • Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest
  • Sister Ann Belz dies at 88
  • Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use
  • Movie Review: Superman
  • Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit
  • Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en