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Candlelight vigil to be held for Uvalde shooting victims at Waterfront Park

Texas School Shooting
Posted at 4:41 PM, May 25, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-25 21:36:38-04

SAN DIEGO, CA (KGTV)- Wednesday night, several gun violence prevention groups plan to hold a candlelight vigil at Waterfront Park at 7:30 p.m. to remember the lives of the victims of the Uvalde, TX school shooting.

"I'm a mom, I'm a teacher, I experienced many real lockdowns over the years in my classroom," Wendy Wheatcroft, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action, and a survivor of gun violence said. "We're a gun violence prevention organization (Moms Demand Action) working at the local state and federal level to prevent all forms of gun violence."

Seeing another mass shooting, with so many children murdered has left people questioning why, and how to stop it from happening again.

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"I don't know how much more any of us can take," Wheatcroft said.

For her, the answer isn't simple but starts with meaningful, noticeable changes.

"We really need sweeping federal legislation, a nationwide safe storage law to prevent children from having access to guns, we need a federal background check law," she said. "We really need to march ourselves to the ballot box this midterm and vote for candidates who are not taking money from the gun lobby, it's that simple."

The San Diego County Gun owners association also weighed in saying in a statement, "Our staff and our members are deeply saddened. It is disheartening to see so many politicians use this tragedy to further their existing anti-gun agenda when what is needed is a unifying discussion on what the nation can do to change criminal culture and fix the inadequate mental health system."

Wednesday night San Diegans for gun violence prevention and other groups plan to come together for the candlelight vigil, to remember the lives lost and, "To mourn, to scream, to cry, to just mark this as a moment in time that we need to stop this from happening again," Wheatcroft said.