Traveling group comes to Hub City to spread gun violence awareness

JACKSON, Tenn. — A group traveling around the country in hopes to end gun violence made a stop in the Hub City.

“It is extremely hard to live with that pain,” said Kathy Moore, who  lost her 18-year-old nephew to gang violence more than 20 years ago.

“He was the perfect nephew, he gave me so much respect,” she said.

But as time goes on, dealing with her family’s loss doesn’t get any easier.

“It’s been 23 years for me and my family, and it seems like yesterday,” she said.

Moore is just one of many across the nation mourning after losing a loved one to gun violence, and that’s why she got involved with the national “Stolen Lives” family tour.

The group travels to help families dealing with that pain.

“We seek to unite with communities across the country,” said Rev. Jerome McCorry , who helped coordinate the tour. “Not just to bring their stories out, but to connect other people who have lost loved ones as well.”

McCorry travels with more than 50 others that have lost a family member to a police involved incident or some other type of violence.

The tour meets with those families to talk about their relatives and laws they think need to be changed in order to keep them safe.

“These mothers, even five to 10 years down the line, have flashbacks to incidents,” McCorry said.

Moore says it’s their passion to prevent this from happening to another family.

“We have very intelligent smart children in this community, and we want to see them live and be successful,” Moore said.

This is the second year for the national stolen lives tour and their second stop in Jackson.