At first it was just a restaurant date for a high school boyfriend and girlfriend, but shortly it would turn into a date that many people would remember years after it happened.
While the two were seated at a table, local police were chasing a suspected drug criminal down the street. Eventually, the suspect ran into the restaurant with the police following close behind.
Both had guns that they fired at each other.
During the exchange, a pregnant waitress was shot. Kim Love’s sister was the girlfriend eating out with her boyfriend.
“My baby sister had to hide under a table in the restaurant while witnessing it,” recalled Kim Love, 48, who stood with her 13 year-old-son while holding a cardboard sign that read, “I am: a mom, voter, a donor to candidates who oppose the NRA and fed up and taking action!”
Although the March for Our Lives event in Washington D.C., was primarily focused on victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other school shootings, other marchers came because of their own encounters with gun violence.
“There was a murder last spring, right across the street from me, where you think it wouldn’t occur,” said Elizabeth Risley, a resident of Northeast D.C. “So, someone just like me was murdered by someone not from our direct community. I can’t say every day, but maybe every day, or weekly that’s the community I know.”
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Many neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. are plagued by drugs and gun violence.
“I am always getting alerts for a shooting, stabbing or robbery,” said Risley, while standing alongside her niece and nephew holding signs that said, “ban assault weapons” and “stand up for the next generation.”
About 41 percent of robberies in 2016 involved a firearm, according to the FBI’s report, Crime in the U.S. 2016.
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While Love’s youngest sister witnessed an act of gun violence, her other sister was a gun violence victim during a robbery.
The middle child was working alone in a small shoe store when people entered, brought her to the back room of the shop, tied her up and held a gun in her face.
The robbers held her there while stealing items from the store.
“We are Unitarian Universalists, so my approach my entire life and my religious belief is that there is never a reason for gun violence,” said Love. Unitarian Universalists believe in searching for spiritual growth, which will lead to justice, love, learning and hope.
“I am a pacifist in the truest sense of the word, so I believe that we should ban guns. That is what will make our children safe.”