Columbia To Gather Against Gun Violence 6 Years After Sandy Hook

COLUMBIA, MD — Community members in Columbia will join together to recognize victims and survivors of gun violence. The gathering is planned to take place at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center on Friday, Dec. 14.

Organizers are calling it the Gun Violence Remembrance Event, and it coincides with the six-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings.

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza fatally shot his mother at his Newtown, Connecticut, home before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School and killing 26 people — 20 children and six adults. Lanza, 20, later took his own life.

"Please join us for a vigil as we honor those lost that day as well as the 600,000+ Americans who have been killed or injured by guns since then," organizers said in an announcement about the event.

The following groups are organizing the vigil:

• Howard County Moms Demand Action
• Sandy Hook Promise/Howard County
• HoCo Women Against Gun Violence
• Students Demand Action/Howard County
• Marylanders To Prevent Gun Violence

The event is one of many to be held nationwide in partnership with Newtown Action Alliance.

While Columbia was recently named the "Safest City in America" by finance site WalletHub, it is located between Washington, D.C., which had 116 homicides last year, and Baltimore, which was designated by USA Today as the "most dangerous city in America," based on 2017 FBI data. Charm City saw 343 homicides last year.

Baltimore has recorded 292 homicides this year and 635 nonfatal shootings, according to the city's crime data as of Wednesday, Dec. 12.

Columbia has also been connected to some gun violence among its own community members.

An Oakland Mills graduate died in February after he was shot at a New Year's Eve party in Severn, police said.

Over Labor Day weekend 2017, a pregnant Wilde Lake High School teacher was shot to death by her boyfriend.

Three people were shot and killed at The Mall in Columbia on Jan. 25, 2014, including the gunman.

"Together we will honor all victims and survivors of gun violence by shining a light on the devastating epidemic of gun violence as we strive to reduce gun deaths in our communities," according to Howard County Moms Demand Action.

The Gun Violence Remembrance Event will be at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 14, at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center, 7426 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, MD 21045.

SEE ALSO:

• Larry Aaron III Died From New Year's Eve Shooting: Police
• Suspected Jacksonville Gunman Grew Up In Columbia
• Columbia Is Safest City In America For 2018: WalletHub
• Boyfriend Admits He Shot Pregnant Girlfriend Who Taught At Wilde Lake
• Columbia Christmas Stabbing Leads To Murder Charge
• Mass Shootings In Maryland: Newspaper, Workplace, Mall
• Columbia Man Charged With Murder In Montgomery County
• 3 Dead in Shooting at Columbia Mall, Gunman Identified

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