On Saturday, the Anchorage chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America held a march commemorating National Gun Violence Awareness day.
Men and women holding posters and dressed in bright orange are gathered at the Delaney Park Strip. They passed flowers from hand to hand as local activist Janice Swiderski led a chant.
“Not one more," Swiderski said. "From sea to shining sea. Make guns safe, for kids, for you, for me!”
Swiderski is the local lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a national grass roots organization that advocates for stronger laws and policies to reduce gun violence. She said the mass shootings that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown and Pulse Night Club in Orlando inspired her to get involved.
“At some point you have to take a moral stand. And you have to think about public safety," Swiderski said. "And right now I think that we’re having a gun violence epidemic in our country and in Anchorage.”
According to the Center for Disease Control, Alaska had a gun death rate of 23.4 per 100,000 citizens in 2015. That was the highest rate in the nation that year, although a vast majority of those deaths were suicides. In Anchorage alone, 30 homicides by firearm were carried out in 2016.
One of the marchers, Megan Byers, said she came out to march on behalf of her niece who was shot by an acquaintance almost two years ago. The niece survived, but issue of gun violence became much more real to Byers. She said she wishes that gun owners understood that when she advocates for gun safety, she isn’t trying to take away their second amendment rights.
“Even after my niece’s event, where my niece got shot, you know I went to my social media and asked for people to come out," Byers said. "And I surprisingly got messages from people saying, 'You’re trying to take away our guns. That’s definitely not it at all. I come from a family that has guns. I know how to shoot a gun. I know how to use it properly and safely. We store it safely. We just want some accountability from gun owners.”
After making their way through downtown Anchorage, the marchers arrived at Hostetler Park, a shady corner of grass where L Street becomes West 3rd avenue. Beneath a tree in the park is the Homicide Victims’ Memorial, a black stone wall that lists hundreds of Alaskans who died from violent crimes. Marchers laid flowers by the wall and listed the names of family members and friends who had been lost to gun violence.
While leaving the park, the marchers were quiet. But quickly they resumed their spirited chanting and waved their signs at passing cars.