Drew Spiegel was making ready to march within the 2022 Fourth of July parade within the Chicago suburb of Highland Park when gunfire rang out.
“In that brief time span, seven individuals died, 48 extra [were] injured,” the 19-year-old instructed ABC Information. “I texted my dad and mom that I won’t be coming house from the Fourth of July parade. And my life eternally modified.”
For greater than a yr after the taking pictures, Spiegel did not discuss it. That modified when he obtained to varsity and encountered the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Security.
Advocates are involved about how Donald Trump’s re-election will impression their efforts to get gun violence prevention laws handed.
ABC Information
“They requested me straight up like, ‘Are you a survivor of gun violence?’ ” he mentioned. “And I used to be like, no, however technically I used to be at a mass taking pictures. They usually have been like, so then sure.”
The U.S. sees 43,000 deadly shootings yearly, and 120 individuals are fatally shot day-after-day, in keeping with Angela Ferrell-Zabala, the chief director of Mothers Demand Motion, an Everytown subsidiary group.
“That is greater than a mass taking pictures drawback, it is a gun violence epidemic,” Spiegel mentioned, citing the July assassination try and obvious September try on former President Donald Trump, who gained a second time period within the White Home on Tuesday, as proof of the issue’s scale.
“If Donald Trump, the previous president of the USA, is just not secure from gun violence, then no person is,” he mentioned.
Drew Spiegel survived the 2022 Highland Park taking pictures.
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Now, Spiegel is sharing his story with individuals who might have completely different opinions than him.
“The change we’re combating for, is just not mutually unique with the Second Modification. They’ll coexist,” he instructed ABC Information. “We will have a rustic the place individuals are allowed to have weapons and likewise a rustic the place you do not have to fret about going to high school.”
However he is not simply pondering when it comes to the following 4 years — he is how the legal guidelines made within the coming many years might save lives.
He is discovered an ally in Rep. Maxwell Frost, who gained election in Florida’s tenth Congressional District in 2022 and gained reelection on Tuesday. The 27-year-old Democrat can also be a survivor of gun violence and was beforehand the nationwide organizing director for gun management advocacy group March For Our Lives.
That motion did not end in gun management laws getting handed, however Frost accepts that change takes time.
“The way in which you measure the success of a motion is, you see the seeds are planted in individuals,” Frost instructed ABC Information. “I am the primary particular person from that motion to be in Congress. That is a win, proper? After which we obtained the Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention [in 2023]. That is a win.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost was beforehand the nationwide organizing director for gun management advocacy group March For Our Lives.
ABC Information
Nevertheless, Frost warned ABC Information in August that he foresees this progress being rolled again.
“If Donald Trump wins this election, one of many issues he’ll do on Day One is eliminate the workplace fully. Do away with it,” he mentioned. “This workplace helps to save lots of lives throughout all the nation. So eliminating the workplace actually means extra individuals will die on account of gun violence.”
With Trump returning to the White Home in January, it is unclear how a lot progress gun management will make. In 2018, the Trump administration banned bump shares, which permit weapons to basically function as computerized weapons. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court docket struck down that ban in June.
“Once I’m again within the Oval Workplace, nobody will lay a finger in your firearms,” he instructed Nationwide Rifle Affiliation (NRA) members in February.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a fist as he leaves the stage along with his spouse Melania throughout an election night time occasion, Nov.6, 2024, in West Palm Seaside, Florida.
Callaghan O’hare/Reuters
Regardless of this, Spiegel is hoping individuals will maintain combating for gun violence prevention legal guidelines, to stop tales just like his personal from occurring yet again.
“I believe our rights and freedoms shall be beneath a better assault than ever earlier than. However I do not assume it is fully over,” he instructed ABC Information. “I believe there’s nonetheless a rustic and, extra importantly, our family and friends within the nation which are value combating for. And we simply put our heads down and get again to work. You simply maintain combating.”
