ATLANTA — As the nation paused to honor shooting victims and their families on Friday for National Gun Violence Awareness Day, advocates across metro Atlanta are demanding change.
It's an issue we've been following closely here in the City of Atlanta – with three children injured in a shooting in just the last week. On Thursday, a baby was hurt in a shooting at a northwest Atlanta apartment complex. Over Memorial Day weekend, 16-year-old Bre'Asia Powell was shot and killed while attending a gathering -- another 16-year-old boy was also hurt in the shooting.
Now, advocates are trying to help our community.
“This was my loving child,” Sharon Robinson said. She still vividly remembers the day her son Christian Harris was shot.
“He was innocently standing inside the convenient store-- when a person who had been loitering all day around the store, decided to enter to rob, and as a result, Christian was killed," she said.
Since that day in 2021, Sharon become an advocate against gun violence sharing her son’s story in hopes of preventing another family’s heartbreak.
However, in the last week alone, there have been more than 10 shootings in Atlanta.
Community advocate Duwon Robinson, of the nonprofit PAWKids, said his main concerns are the number of kids involved in the shooting.
“The city has to realize that this is a real problem,” he said. “These kids got access to too many guns because Atlanta is a big city that has a lot of sporting events, festivals, and things like that and the young folks have figured out that people most people leave their guns in their cars.”
Duwon said often children are stealing weapons from vehicles, and then use them without fully understanding the consequences.
“Art imitates life, so if you are playing the video game and killing all day, every day. 'I'm killing these people on the game... and snatching them out of the car on Grand Theft Auto. So, when I come in contact with their live -- physical human being, there is no difference," Duwon added.
As Duwon is working to raise awareness about gun violence, parents like Sharon continue to grieve from the real-life impacts.
“He was very charming, very helpful. He just loved people and everybody loved him so that hurt never goes away,” Sharon said with tears in her eyes.
On Saturday, Sharon and several community advocates will attend an "End, Gun Violence" event in partnership with "Moms Demand Action." The event will be at the Reverend Timothy McDonald Community Outreach Center. It's open to the public from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.