SOUTHAMPTON — The bell of the First Congregational Church in Southampton echoed through the night 17 times as the names of each victim of the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, were read aloud.
“Amazing Grace” was quietly sung underneath the reverberation of the chimes while some 40 people lit candles and stood in somber silence Wednesday to not only remember the lives lost, but to also organize the community to send a message to policymakers that there had been one too many massacres like Parkland.
“We will not stop with prayer. We cannot. This vigil was born out of the hope that our community of Southampton and neighboring areas does not just pray for the victims, but honors them and all of our children with action,” Kathy Marks, minister of music at the church, said. “We can do this if we work at it.”
Initially scheduled to be a conversation on paths for community action, the idea for a vigil was not entirely set in stone until after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14. Marks suggested the idea to the Rev. Jennifer Valentine, and they began to organize.
Speakers at the event included Southampton Select Board member Maureen Groden, Hampshire Regional School Committee member Jim Palermo and school shooting survivor Anne Thalheimer from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Intertwined with speakers were songs from the all-women group In Close Harmony, directed by Marks.
Standing at the podium on the front steps of the church next to a list of all of the school shootings in America since 1999, Groden had a strong message for lawmakers who have yet to act on gun control laws in the wake of multiple school shootings.
“We need to continue to resist. We need to continue to fight. We are at a very very difficult time in our country right now,” Groden said. “If the people in power are not willing or not able to fight for sensible gun legislation we need to simply vote them out.”
In the United States alone, on average, about 33,000 people die every year from gun in shootings. In 2018, there have been eight school shootings in at which at least one person has been shot.
Some at the event claimed that proper gun legislation would not be enough to curb the violence seen in the United States every day.
“While it is essential that we limit access to high-powered guns and keep them out of the hands of individuals not equipped to handle them, such measures are not enough,” Palermo said. “What we need to fashion is a culture in which at every level human life is valued and sacred. Verbal prayers need to be matched by prayers of action.”
For Thalheimer, a western Massachusetts native who lives in Holyoke, the issue of gun safety is a personal one. During her sophomore year at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington in 1992, Thalheimer lost her friend Galen Gibson along with professor and close mentor Ñacuñán Sáez from a school shooting.
“This should not be normal. This should not be everyday news. Teaching should not be a life-threatening profession. Preschoolers to postdocs now know regularly what to do in an active shooter situation,” Thalheimer said. “Every day, people’s sense of safety and security in their homes, their churches and their schools erodes.”
Thalheimer said she got involved with the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown for Gun Safety organizations because of her personal experience. She said people can take action by coming to meetings and contributing to local organizing.
“We must work to change this. It is a responsibility that we all share,” Thalheimer said.
After the event, as people signed petitions to congressional representatives to introduce gun control legislation, Valentine said she was elated to see so many community members interested in becoming part of a broader social change.
“It seems as though the people who were here were engaged,” Valentine said. “You could feel a sense of energy and desire to be connected.”
Attendees of the event felt similarly. Bill Hobbie of Southampton said he felt compelled to come in support of the cause, and that he quickly felt taken over by the message while he took part in the vigil.
“It’s nice to see grassroots action where people can feel like their voice is being heard,” Hobbie said. “I think that’s the most compelling and comforting thing for someone like me, to know that there is some action that I can take.”
Even though the event was relatively last-minute, Marks explained that community events like these were essential to eventually overcoming frequent mass tragedy by gun violence.
“I think the event was beautiful,” Marks said. “And I’m hoping not to stop, I’m hoping that we can keep some momentum going.”