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Mothers Rally To Fight Gun Violence

Megathon Charlie via Flickr, Creative Commons

Mothers across North Carolina are marching and speaking out at events tomorrow to raise awareness of how gun violence affects families. Joslyn Simms, who lost her son Rayburn to gun violence eight years ago this month, will be speaking at tomorrow's rally in Durham.

“Too many of our children are being killed senselessly because these guns are out on the street," Simms says. "Most policemen don't have guns like these kids have now. It's too easy to get an AK-47. It's too easy to go to these gun shows and get guns and bring them back to North Carolina. We need to do background checks to make sure they don't have easy access to these weapons.”

She says recent independent polls suggest 90 percent of North Carolinians support background checks for all gun buyers. Senator Richard Burr voted against legislation that would have closed loopholes that make it easy for criminals to get guns. Senator Kay Hagan voted in favor of expanding background checks. Rallies will be held tomorrow in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Durham. 

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Fed up with the frigid winters of her native state, Catherine was lured to North Carolina in 2006. She grew up in Wisconsin where she spent much of her time making music and telling stories. Prior to joining WUNC, Catherine hosted All Things Considered and classical music at Wisconsin Public Radio. She got her start hosting late-nights and producing current events talk shows for the station's Ideas Network. She later became a fill-in talk show host and recorded books for WPR's popular daily program, Chapter A Day.
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