Plainfield Councilwoman, Moms Demand Action Announce June 1 Gun Violence Awareness March

PLAINFIELD, NJ — At last week's Plainfield City Council meeting Councilor Terri Briggs-Jones along with two members of Union County Moms Demand Action took the floor to speak about an important issue. Moms Demand Action is a grassroots movement fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.

"I had my brother who I lost to gun violence," said Councilor Briggs-Jones. "He was shot 1993 when he was in Virginia visiting my dad. So this is near and dear to me."

"Just recently, a friend of ours that used to go to church with us, her daughter was just murdered almost two weeks ago," added Briggs-Jones. "She was twenty-five years old and had so much ahead of her." Jones said that the details were being sorted out, but that it appears to have been domestic violence, which results in the deaths of thousands of women each year in the United States.

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"The orange [that we wear] is on behalf of Hadiya Pendleton, who was part of the inauguration of Barack Obama in his first administration," explained Kathleen Dolan of Moms Demand Action of Union County. "And two weeks later, when she went back to Chicago, she was shot and killed in a park near her house."

"So her friends got together," she continued. "They asked that there be something to remember her by. Her favorite color was orange—and they started this movement, which is now a national movement. All over the country, there are these kinds of events going on just to raise awareness of gun violence."

Dolan announced that Plainfield's march will be held on Saturday, June 1 this year. Marchers will meet at 9:15am at the Plainfield Performing Arts Center, and they will begin to march to City Hall at 9:30 before a 9:45 rally there. Attendees are encouraged to wear orange.

Councilor Briggs-Jones led a similar march and rally on June 4, 2022, where orange ribbons were placed around trees on the march route. She has confirmed that the route will be marked in orange once again.

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At that 2022 rally, Union County Commissioner Rebecca Williams delivered an emotional plea for stricter gun control and standing up to the gun lobby. The event took place only 11 days after the Uvalde shooting in Texas and under a month after the racially-motivated grocery store shooting in Buffalo. You can listen to Williams' speech here . Read the transcript here .

The march and rally are sponsored by the City of Plainfield, Moms Demand Action, Wear Orange, and the Plainfield Public Schools, whose Plainfield Cardinals Marching Band will lead.

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