St. Louis parish gathers to mourn young victims of gun violence, demand change

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - On the heels of a violent weekend across St. Louis, a south city community came together to remember and reflect — and to insist that the city’s gun violence epidemic must end.

“We come together here to pray together and say to God, please show us a way to mourn and to find a way forward,” Mary Lisa Penilla, a parishioner and member of Gun Sense: For the Common Good, exclaimed.

Inside St. Margaret of Scotland Church on Flad Ave, music filled the air and poems were read aloud, as neighbors shared their reactions to another year of gun violence in our city and beyond.

“It has to stop; the craziness, the tragedy - it’s horrific and it won’t end, and it has to,” Jeff Goldone, interim priest at nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church, stated.

This year marks the fourth prayer vigil held by the church, meant to honor the lives of young people lost to gun violence.

“Just after the Uvalde shooting in Texas, we came together with our hands raised and said, ' What can we do,” Penilla explained. “What can we do as a parish community to decry this epidemic of gun violence?”

It’s also meant to remember the tragic shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School back in 2022, when a former student opened fire, killing student Alexzandria Bell, 15, and health and PE teacher Jean Kuczka.

“We suffered that loss and continue to bear the loss,” Penilla exclaimed. “What we know and what we’ve learned is that gun violence doesn’t stop with the shooting of the gun; it affects everyone in its wake.”

This year’s vigil comes after a particularly violent weekend across the city. We saw seven different shootings overnight Saturday that left four people dead and injured six others. Among those injured were two 16-year-olds.

“It breaks my heart and Jesus weeps; we have to be better with this,” Goldone said.

The message of the day was clear: this violence needs to end.

“Too many people have lost loved ones, [they’re] grieving and it’s hard, and our legislators won’t do anything about it,” Goldone stated. “We need to take a stand as people of faith.”

“We know that we are all connected by this terrible scourge of gun violence,” Penilla said. “We come together to try to find peace and a way forward, but we have to say no together and so we have to stand together.”

For more information about Gun Sense: For the Common Good and to learn how you can get involved, you can visit their website here.