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Janée Woods Weber of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund speaks at an anti-gun violence rally at United Church on the Green in New Haven, Monday, June 2, 2022

Leonard Jahad, executive director of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program,  speaks at an anti-gun violence rally at United Church on the Green in New Haven, Monday, June 2, 2022

A crowd wearing Connecticut Against Gun Violence T-shirts attends an anti-gun violence rally at United Church on the Green in New Haven, Monday, June 2, 2022

Mayor Justin Elicker speaks at an anti-gun violence rally at United Church on the Green in New Haven, Monday, June 2, 2022

NEW HAVEN — A church full of anti-gun violence activists and supporters gathered Thursday evening, some of them politicians, expressed anger and impatience with the increasing number of mass shootings in the United States.

Chanting “Not one more” and “Say their names” the speakers exhorted the crowd, mostly wearing orange Connecticut Against Gun Violence T-shirts, to take action, even in a state with some of the strongest gun control laws in the country.

The rally was moved from the Green to United Church on the Green because of the rain.

The shootings that have been most prominent recently and have spurred rallies like Thursday’s, began May 14 in a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 died. Then 21 were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, and four were shot to death Wednesday in a hospital building in Tulsa, Okla.

Ebony McClease, legislative coordinator for Amity International USA and a teacher at Wilbur Cross High School, said the Buffalo shooting “sparks significant sympathy in my heart.” As a student at Canisius College, “living on Main Street, I called Buffalo home for some time,” she said.

“That Tops market was one that I had entered with my friends in that very community. That community, that pain resonates with me because of my personal connection,” she said.

Janée Woods Weber of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund brought the history of school shootings back to Columbine High School in Colorado.

“I vividly remember the day that Columbine happened in April 1999,” she said. “I stood in shock in front of my TV wondering how in the world could this be happening in our country and at a school. … I naively thought that Columbine was a one-time tragedy. That was 23 years ago. And I’m so upset that I was so wrong.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who with U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., is on a bipartisan committee seeking ways to tighten gun laws, said he has optimism despite the United States’ record of gun deaths.

“We have no more mental health issues than any other advanced country. We have way more killings. And that is an indictment of our nation,” he said. “What I’m seeing is the beginnings of some possible action. I don’t want to overstate it. I’m very clear-eyed about the obstacles and work ahead because I’ve seen Congress fail in these 10 years. I’ve been in the thick of it. But I’m more encouraged than I have been in those 10 years that we can do some bipartisan work here.”

But he added, “It is now — let me just put it bluntly — put up or shut up time for Republicans.”

Several speakers spoke about the individual acts of gun violence that Blumenthal said kill 100 people every day in America.

“We are here in New Haven because we would be remiss if we didn’t concentrate on the real public health crisis of gun violence that also affects our urban communities, places like Hartford, Bridgeport and right here in New Haven,” said Jeremy Stein, executive director of CAGV. “There was a shooting last week where a 15-year-old was killed riding a bicycle. This has to stop now.”

He said people need to turn feelings of anger, fear, powerlessness into resolve, action and change.

Mayor Justin Elicker said ghost guns, which cannot be traced, are becoming more common, with New Haven police seizing 19 so far this year, compared with one at this time last year. Overall, 110 guns have been seized, compared with 73 in 2021.

“Guns aren’t going away, folks,” Elicker said. “Guns are coming more and more and more, in spite Connecticut having strong legislation, some of the strongest in the nation, we are still seeing this kind of activity.”

Elicker then, by memory, named 13 people who have died of gun violence in the past two years, interspersing the list with “Say their names.”

“The list goes on and on and on of people in our community that have died because of gun violence,” he said. “We owe it to them. We owe it to them to be committed.”

Leonard Jahad, executive director of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program in New Haven, talked about the effects continual gunfire has on city children.

“They hear gunfire almost every night, unfortunately. How do they go back to sleep and then function the next day in school and then have to go through drills and everything, just to keep themselves safe?” he said.

“You think they’re not traumatized? … What’s worse than trauma? Untreated trauma. Our communities are suffering from trauma,” Jahad added.

Terra Volpe, director of community outreach for CAGV, urged people to become involved by joining a letter-writing campaign called the Pen Power Project to send 10,000 get-out-the-vote letters in the state. People can join by texting “letters” to 72572.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382

Ed Stannard is a reporter whose beats include Yale University, religion, transportation, medicine, science and the environment. He grew up in the New Haven area and has lived there most of his life. He received his journalism degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and earned a master's degree in religious studies from Sacred Heart University. He has been an editor at the New Haven Register and at the Episcopal Church's national newspaper.

He loves the arts, travel and reading.