Several current and former Brown University students spoke out against gun violence at community vigil in Brunswick Saturday. The event was held one week after a mass shooting that killed two students at the Rhode Island campus.
Lauren Rousell grew up in Maine and attends Brown to study mathematical physics. When addressing the crowd, she described the school’s engineering building, where the shooting took place, as a gathering place for students. It’s where Rousell spent hours studying and met many of her friends.
She said those memories are now overshadowed by fear.
“Losing that sense of safety, that sense of peace, that sense of happiness is something that will impact our community for a very long time,” Rousell said.
Several Maine lawmakers also attended the vigil and praised the recent passing of extreme risk protection orders or “red flag gun laws” which allows family members to petition a judge to temporarily take weapons away from a person they believe is at risk of harming themselves or others.
The ballot measure was championed by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition and passed with around 63% of voters saying “yes.”
Gov. Janet Mills also announced this week she would allow laws that would require handmade guns to have serial numbers so they can be more easily traced.
Hannah Pingree, former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and Brown University graduate, said curbing systemic gun violence should see more urgency in the federal government.
"We know there is so much more that we need to do in this country, that we need to commit to," Pingree said. "We need to make sure we don’t have military-style weapons in our society, that we don’t have guns in the hands of criminals, that we protect kids from guns in their own home.”
The vigil was organized by student advocates from Students Demand Action — a national network dedicated to ending gun violence.
“Too many students in my generation have experienced the terror of the always-present threat of gun violence in American schools,” said student Shawn Jiminez, organizer and junior at Bowdoin College. “The sad reality is that for many Brown students experiencing the trauma and fear of last weekend, it may not have even been their first time. As students, we should be worried about finals, not our lives.”
