![]() ![]() The slow-moving storm reached New England in the morning after hitting parts of New York and Connecticut on Sunday. “We threw some dry clothes and our cats into the car and drove to higher ground.” “The river was at our doorstep,” said Pajala. Kelly Pajala said she and about half dozen others had to evacuate early Monday from a four-unit apartment building on the West River in Londonderry. It’s just stressful,” shelter volunteer Amanda Gross said. About 30 people waited it out, some of them making cookies for firefighters who were working to evacuate and rescue others. The next stop on the tour is Atlanta on Wednesday.Some people canoed their way to the Cavendish Baptist Church in Vermont, which had turned into a shelter. “That was a really, was very disrespectful, let’s put it that way, to us as families of kids that we lost in the Parkland shooting,” Patricia Oliver said. Rick Scott in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting. The age was previously raised to 21 under then-Gov. Some GOP lawmakers in Florida also recently attempted to lower the age at which a person can buy certain types of firearms, such as rifles, from 21 to 18. “This is about everyone’s right to live and go to work, to dance, to school, to church, to a park and theater, going shopping, walking down their neighborhood freely without worries of being mowed down by high-capacity rifles,” Alvear said. The push to reform gun laws, she said, “is not about the 2nd Amendment.” ![]() The tour began at Parkland, and their visit to the Pulse Memorial is the first stop.Joaquin “Guac” Oliver was killed in the Parkland mass shooting.(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) We think of our children from the time we wake up until they go to bed, everyday.” A sculpture of Joaquin “Guac” Oliver by his dad, Manuel Oliver, is the hood ornament of the school bus that Manuel and Patricia Oliver are traveling in, for a 24-city summer school bus tour across the country to advocate for gun violence prevention, on Monday, July 3, 2023. We know how these tragedies affect our lives. … We don’t want this nightmare to happen to other families. As parents, we do everything for our children, and we don’t stop because they were taken from us. “It is because of the love we have for our children, because their life means so much to us. “You keep fighting for change,” Alvear said. Mayra Alvear, mother of Pulse victim Amanda Alvear, said she sympathized with the Olivers and understands what they do. “There’s no freedom for the 18-year-old girl who died in a bathroom in that building … There’s no freedom for my best friends Drew and Juan who took 19 rounds from a SIG Sauer MCX and never made it home to say goodbye to their parents.” “There are a lot of people in this country who have had freedom stolen from them because of our obsession with easy access to weapons of war,” Wolf said. People will die because of this legislation.”īrandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse shooting, spoke about the rally’s ‘ironic” timing just before July 4, when the nation celebrates the core American value of freedom. “Most gun owners, most Republicans, most Democrats, most humans who live in the United States are against dangerous laws like this, passed by a governor who’s more interested in running for president than running the state of Florida. “People will call it ‘constitutional carry’, it’s actually permitless carry, which essentially means any gun, any place, any person,” Frost said. “So how can we be able to bring some kind of hope or some kind of, you know, determination to be able to stay united and bring more people into the cause to fight against this craziness that we’re doing every day.” Manuel Oliver, dad of Joaquin “Guac” Oliver who was killed in the Parkland mass shooting, speaks during a visit the Pulse memorial, on Monday, July 3, 2023, as part of a 24-city summer school bus tour across the country to advocate for gun violence prevention.(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)ĭemocratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, who represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District, spoke at the event, singling out the new law. ![]() “Since July 1, we’re gonna be in more trouble, and that’s why we decided to call it all together against gun violence,” she said. Patricia Oliver says the tour is about bringing hope, awareness and unity to those affected by gun violence, especially in light of Florida’s new law allowing permitless concealed carry, which went into effect Saturday. ![]()
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