Highland Park moms lobbying Congress for assault weapons ban after mass shooting at parade
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Moms from Highland Park are starting to arrive in Washington, D.C., ahead of a big march planned for Wednesday, and they are fired up – demanding change – in the wake of the mass shooting at the July 4th parade.
Those mothers began to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, calling for Congress to ban assault weapons. Wednesday's march at 11 a.m. will also include family and friends of victims from Uvalde, Texas.
You can hear it in their voices. They are angry, they are passionate, and they have one singular message: that assault weapons must be banned across the country.
"I need to see that assault weapons are banned federally," said Ivy Domont, one of three Highland Park moms who spoke to CBS 2's Tim McNicholas about Wednesday's planned rally.
Domont was at the Highland Park parade with her family.
Before heading to Washington on Tuesday to push for stricter gun laws, she had a difficult conversation with one of her sons.
"The first thing my 7-year-old said was: 'You're not going to get shot by a gun, are you?' That is not normal. That is not ok," she said.
Emily Lieberman attended the parade with her family as well. Their smiles quickly turned to fear, as they hid in a store bathroom after the gunman started shooting with a Smith & Wesson M&P 15, a high-powered AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle.
"Ultimately, we had 16 people in a single-occupancy bathroom, crouching on the ground in darkness, in fear for our life," she said.
She's not just a mom, but a pediatrician who has dedicated her life to prevention. And now she's tackling gun violence, and has her sights set on lawmakers in Washington.
"There is no reason a citizen needs to be walking the streets with a weapon of war," she said. "This is safety, this is freedom; and I am not free, you are not free, our citizens are not free until we are safe. And we are not safe until those are banned."
Fellow mom Taryn Covrigaru described her own Independence Day nightmare.
"I ran in the opposite direction, because I wasn't with my kids," she said.
She grew up in Highland Park, and was featured in the local newspaper in the parade as a young girl.
She moved to Denver in 2008, and still returns to the Highland Park parade every year for the 4th of July fun. Will it ever be the same?
"Probably not," she said.
Now she is turning her anger into action; flying from Denver to D.C. to join the cause.
"Trying to hold it together today, and make sure that the message we're trying to convey is heard," she said.
That message is simple.
"Assault weapons have no place here," Covrigaru said.
Those three moms and others met privately Tuesday with several lawmakers at the Capitol, ahead of their march on Wednesday.
