(BOSTON, MA. – June 16, 2016) In remembrance of the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel in Charleston, the #ConcertAcrossAmerica to #EndGunViolence has released its 2nd promotional video to coincide with its first anniversary (June 17).
The promo, titled “Amazing Grace,” was inspired by President Obama’s a capella performance at the service for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the victims of the shooting in Charleston. The voices on the promo belong to an a cappella group at the University of California-Santa Barbara – the site of a mass shooting in 2014.
“We are organizing Concert Across America, Remember September 25th, as a way to draw national attention to the devastation these weapons perpetrate on innocent people in this country. We won’t pretend to be able to change the gun culture of this country, only to make it more difficult to put guns in the hands of people who will use them to perpetrate terror and destroy more lives,” said Beryl Kreisel, Santa Barbara Concert Organizer. “For the second morning in a row,” she said on Sunday, “Americans and the world have awakened to the news of the senseless murders of innocent people, murders that would not have been possible without the ready availability of high powered guns and rifles.”
The anniversary of the tragedy in Charleston comes days after the deadliest shooting in U.S. history which occurred Saturday night in Orlando at a nightclub. 50 were killed and 53 were injured.
“We’ve experienced over 1,000 mass shootings since Sandy Hook including the deadliest mass shooting in history–a hate crime against the LGBTQ community in Orlando. Incredibly, Congress doesn’t care that there is a mass shooting of four or more Americans every day in the United States and that 90 more people will die today from preventable gun violence,” said John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, the Boston-based nonprofit organization leading the effort on the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence. “Americans must join together and hold Congress accountable for willingly arming criminals, terrorists and the mentally ill. On September 25, 2016, we’ll remember Christina Grimmie, the 103 Orlando victims, and all the other victims of gun violence in the United States. Musicians, gun violence prevention groups, domestic violence organizations, and local nonprofits across the U.S. are uniting for simultaneous Concerts Across America to End Gun Violence. From coast to coast, we will build a movement that demands action and makes gun violence a voting issue in November.”
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About the Concert Across America
This nationwide event will bring together a network of organizations, activists and artists with the dual goals of keeping guns out of dangerous hands and making the issue of illegal guns top of mind for members of Congress, the presidential candidates, and the American people as they go to the polls in November, 2016. For more information, visit www.ConcertAcrossAmerica.org.
Stop Handgun Violence (SHV) is a Massachusetts based non-profit organization committed to the prevention of gun violence through education, public awareness, effective law enforcement and common sense gun laws. SHV has been the lead advocate in Massachusetts for enactment of some of the most effective gun violence prevention laws and of first in the nation consumer protection regulations. The organization does not seek to restrict Constitutional rights, but advocates only for common sense legislation that will help save lives. For more information, go to www.stophandgunviolence.org