Members of the Rockville Mayor and Council and the Montgomery County Council will hold a vigil Friday, May 27 for those slain this week in an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“We are tired of ‘thoughts and prayers’ and we are beyond fatigued with the action of numerous senators blocking the passage of critical gun-control legislation,” the Mayor and Council stated. “The time is now to require mandatory background checks. The time is now to require a moratorium on the sale of assault weapons. The time is now to require a 48-hour timeout for those wanting to purchase any type of gun. Bottom line, the time is now for action.”
The vigil, led by Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, will begin at 5 p.m. on the steps of the Grey Courthouse Office Building, 27 Courthouse Square. County Council President Gabe Albornoz and the Rev. Barry Moultrie of Mount Calvary Baptist Church will speak.
At least 21 were killed in the shooting Tuesday at Robb Elementary School, most of them schoolchildren. The attack was the second-deadliest school shooting in the U.S., following a 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
The Uvalde attack came only 10 days after a white gunman killed 10 at a Tops supermarket in a majority Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
Attendees of the Friday evening vigil are encouraged to wear orange in recognition of gun-violence awareness.