By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Four years ago, Jazmyne Rice’s best friend was lost to gun violence. The two were in high school in Cleveland – planning for college and their lives ahead.
Shaylona Williams, 17, had big dreams.
“She wanted to be a nurse, and she loved to bake,” Rice said of her friend. But one day when Williams went to her boyfriend’s home, another high school student came to the house.
“He just came in shooting everybody in the house,” Rice said. He killed Williams, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s parents.
On Thursday, Rice – a junior majoring in psychology at BGSU – came to her first Not In Our Town Bowling Green meeting. She told of the gun violence that ended her friend’s life.
She found a room of people who shared her horror about gun violence in America.
“There’s great grief and frustration in our country,” said Pastor Gary Saunders. “It shows up in almost every conversation I get into.”
Last week it happened again, when 12 people were shot to death in their workplace in Virginia Beach.
So again, Not In Our Town Bowling Green released a response last week to the violence.
“We wonder why our land is plagued with mass shootings, filled with rage, and overflowing with the blood of innocents,” part of the statement read. “We live in a broken world where no place is safe from violence, especially vulnerable are places where we should be safe to express our beliefs, educate our young people, and practice democracy – fundamental sanctities of our country.”
Tom Klein pointed out to fellow NIOT members that they were meeting in a municipal building – the same type of setting as the shootings in Virginia Beach.
“We’re sitting in a municipal building. That is unsafe,” he said. “We are all potential victims and the groups we belong to are potential victims.”
Shootings have become all too common events in American schools, churches, workplaces and movie theaters.
“The places we used to feel safe in are no longer safe,” said Emily Dunipace, community chairperson of NIOT. “Obviously, thoughts and prayers are not enough. There needs to be more.”
A Bowling Green High School student shared her feelings about the lockdown ordered a couple weeks ago at three BG schools after it was reported that a man with an AR-15 may have been in City Park.
“It was really scary,” said Ellie Boyle said.
Because of the limited information at the time, Boyle said the teacher whose classroom she barricaded in did not know if the threat was from inside or outside the building. And even after the lockdown was lifted, many of the students were still shaken.
“They didn’t relay any information to us,” Boyle said.
On Thursday, members discussed the small steps they can take locally, such as:
- Supporting the citizens across the country and here in Bowling Green who will be wearing orange to participate in Gun Violence Awareness weekend, June 7-9. Information is available at www.wearorange.org
- Contacting Senator Rob Portman R-Ohio, to ask him to support Senate Bill 42, which requires mandatory background checks for all gun sales. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has already voiced his support for the bill.
- Holding community dialogues on topics such as diversity, bias, and hate crimes.
The NIOT members talked about New Zealand’s reaction to mass shootings there earlier this year.
“They changed laws about guns almost overnight,” Klein said.
The local residents know that isn’t going to happen in America, and that their steps are small.
“Something is better than nothing,” Saunders said.
Rice is working on her own project to remember her high school friend and make others aware of gun violence.
“I’ve kept in contact with her sister and brother,” Rice said. And this past February, “I got this passion to do something to give back to her – but I didn’t know what.”
Then she got an idea. She bought peanut butter, chocolate and cupcake cups – and started making homemade peanut butter cups. With each one, she puts in a note saying “stop gun violence. Labeling them with the Instagram “in.lovingmemory_” Rice sold them.
Twenty percent of the sales goes to the families of gun violence victims. Again, it’s not much. But it’s a small step in the right direction, she said.
Each month, Rice makes something new. This month it’s homemade body scrubs.
“It has to be something I can make in my little apartment,” she said.
The notes about gun violence have served their purpose. “It definitely creates dialogue.”
Each item she sells is tied up with a bright blue ribbon – the color of the shirt her friend was wearing the last time she saw her.
“I wanted to make something that represented her,” Rice.
