Students and community members honored lives lost to gun violence at the “Vigil for Victims,” hosted in front of ‘the bowl’ at William T. Young Library on Wednesday night. 

The Sept. 17 vigil was organized by the University of Kentucky’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Young Communist League (YCL), Intersectional Feminist Collective (IFC) and Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA).

YDSA co-chair and UK senior Ilja Faas said these organizations collaborated to provide students “a space to mourn” while bringing attention to the effects of gun violence.

“We realized there was a recent uptick and a focus on gun violence in media,” Faas said. “We need to focus not just on one specific ideology, one specific person or specific group of people. We need to acknowledge that every single one of us are affected by gun violence in some way in the United States.”

Participants heard from speakers, lit candles, shared a moment of silence and wrote messages such as “When will enough be enough?” and “Nobody’s life is worth it, gun reform now” on a banner.

Student organizers shared statistics, including how the leading cause of death in children in America is gun violence. 

“In a perfect world, none of us would be here tonight,” YDSA member Braden Stamper said. “So I present a challenge to everyone here tonight. Do not forget their names, who they were, who they wanted to be.”

Deana Mullins said she attended the vigil to remember her son, Sean Howard. He was shot and killed in a Walmart parking lot eight years ago when he was 19 years old, about to start school at UK. She said his killer walks free today.

Mullins carries on Sean’s legacy by sharing his story to fight for gun reform. She’s a member of Moms Demand Action, a gun sense advocacy group and helps run a gun violence survivor group at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.  

“I stand before you today to speak of the wounds no one sees, the hollowness no one else can feel, and the fight mothers and families live with after a school shooting or any gun violence that snatches away our children,” Mullins said to the crowd.

She said the turnout at the vigil gave her hope that her grandchildren might not have to live in fear of facing the same fate Sean did, as the younger generation pushes for change.

“It’s very encouraging that our young people are coming out to say, hey, enough is enough. We’re tired of losing loved ones. We’re tired of hearing about lockdowns or school shootings or having to go in lockdowns ourselves,” Mullins said. “It’s really heartwarming and helps me in the healing process, too.”

Sophomore biology major Aphelion DeLong-Grant said they came to the vigil to support people like Mullins and were touched by hearing her speak.

“Her story was powerful and moving,” DeLong-Grant said. “It’s just tragic how so many moms and parents and family members have to go through this just because people think that their right to bear arms is more important than these people’s lives.”

Drew Goins, sophomore history major, said he attended because it “breaks his heart” when he hears about gun violence on the news and he believes it is important to talk about the severity of the issue. 

“It’s extremely important that we come out, especially after the recent vigil that just took place, that really only honored one man who died,” Goins said. “I think that gun violence is a more serious issue. We should recognize the thousands of people that have died. When one man who’s some political figure gets tragically killed from gun violence, a bunch of people rally about it, but they still don’t want to talk about the guns. And that’s really what the problem is.”

Faas, speaking on behalf of the event’s organizers, acknowledged last Sunday’s campus vigil for Charlie Kirk but said their event was not a response to it.

“We were planning this before that vigil occurred. This was a response to there being two school shootings on the 10th,” Faas said. “And that kind of sparked that media uptick. We saw that and we were like, we believe that UK students deserve to know that they’re not alone in this.”