BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — One week after the Boulder grocery store tragedy, community members came together at CU Boulder.

Students, parents, teachers and survivors gathered to demand action against gun violence.
The event started with a moment of silence for the 10 victims lost followed by a number of speakers.

“As a student and as a young person, I’m kind of accustomed of hearing of shootings and school shootings and threats, but it was different when I checked the map and it was a mile and a half from my dorm and it was different when my mom was crying over the phone and just making sure I wasn’t there,” student Ava Rehbeck said.

Students Demand Action President Devon Romero shared how her passion for gun reform drew strong when she lost her father to gun violence. 

“My dad’s death was preventable, the stranger who shot him was a felon and shouldn’t have had a gun,” Romero said. 

Romero was 17 when she said her dad was shot and killed. Now a sophomore at CU Boulder, her community lost 10 of their own to a mass shooting.

“It’s possible, it can happen at any time when you are not expecting it and we shouldn’t have to lose someone to want to make up for it,” Romero said. “We can’t go back and change that but we can prevent the future lives lost.”

Tim Hernãndez, a Denver Public Schools teacher talked about how laws are changed by passionate community members who demand change for a better Colorado.

“I’m tired of being in a community where I’m teaching my students how to die, where we get gunned down by people we don’t even know,” Hernãndez said. “We are missing the cultural problem we have with guns in this country.”

After speeches, students encouraged everyone to sign a petition they plan to send senators in Washington D.C.