Gun violence devastates families, neighborhoods and communities

 "Gun violence devastates families, neighborhoods and communities. When it sweeps up our children, it leaves us at a loss for words. Recent shootings in Champaign and Urbana have left a 14-year-old paralyzed and a 16-year-old dead. Others were lucky enough to escape injury… this time. They are scarred by the experience nonetheless.

We don’t have a solution today. But we do know that no families are really safe unless all families are safe. No community is really healthy unless all neighborhoods are healthy. We must all work to end gun violence and we need help. There are children and families grieving today and we’re heartsick for them.

We also know that kids don’t get shot because they “slipped”---they got shot because our society has slipped. Our family, neighborhood, and community relationships have slipped. We need to rebuild those relationships, person by person, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood and it will take our community working together to accomplish that."

--Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin