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A group of grieving Chicago mothers took to the streets the Friday before Mother’s Day to stand up to gun violence in their neighborhoods.

According to ABC 7 News, the women are calling for a ceasefire this weekend as they hope that other mothers don’t have to experience losing a child or loved ones like they have.

“There are too many out here, just going through this. I don’t want to see another mother go through what I went through- twice. So please put the guns down,” Delphine Cherry, the mother of two victims of gun violence, told the news station. 

Another mother, Alice Thomas-Norris, whose daughter Rolanda Marshall said, “There is no pain like a mother’s pain to have to bury her child and have to leave that cemetery and have to leave that child there.”

“I have a daughter and granddaughter. I still have them, but they are no longer on this Earth. Why? Due to preventable gun violence,” said Yolan Corner, a Chicago Survivors Board Member.

Gun violence advocates including Father Michael Pfleger also joined the women on Friday to help lead some prayers and to stress to the community that all these women want this holiday is peace. 

“They don’t want flowers, candy, gifts they wanna be able to wake up in the morning and see that no one was killed,” he said. 

It’s not a secret that Chicago is in the midst of a serious gun violence epidemic, hence it’s nickname “Chiraq.” Just last month, Chicago Police Department report found that 311 people were shot, killing 36.

But what can be done?

While poverty is a major catalyst for violence in urban areas, some stress that ending gun violence has to start at home, FOX 32 noted“These kids are going to the streets because there’s no love at home. I don’t want another mother standing by us.  I don’t wanna see another mother bury her child,” said Elizabeth Ramirez of Parents for Peace and Justice.

This isn’t the first time that local mothers have called for a ceasefire. They did the same this past Easter and it worked–no shootings took place that weekend, FOX 32 pointed out.

RELATED LINKS:

Rest In Power: Funeral Held For Young Chicago Activist Killed By Gun Violence

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Obama’s Plans To Combat Gun Violence Fall Flat Without Support

Grieving Chicago Moms Call For Ceasefire On Mother’s Day  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com