Thursday was National Gun Violence Awareness day. Family members in the area who have lost someone to gun violence, hope the attention to the threat of guns will keep someone from feeling their pain.
In the last couple week, there have been more than a half-dozen shootings in Omaha, five were in one night.
Pastor Victoria Parker said she is tired of the violence in our community, “there are so many people that I have met since I’ve been here that have been victims of gun violence. Their children have been lost or their sister or brother.”
Buffy Bush lost her sister, Jemeila Hesseltine, in a shooting in 2011, which remains unsolved.
She said gun violence still affects her family almost five years later.
“What happens for us every time there is a new murder, every time there is a new shooting, it's like our wounds are torn open all over again,” she said.
Bush, who is the founder of Families of the Stolen, said she sees how gun violence affects the community.
“What it does for people like me, family, friends, anyone who loved anyone who has been murdered, when you shoot that person, their pain is done, there is no more pain for them, the pain is for those that loved them,” said Bush.
Recently the Omaha Police gang unit made dozens of gun arrests, Bush said it’s great to hear that some guns are off the street.
“It gives me hope honestly, every time someone is arrested for gun violence, murder , assault anything, it gives me hope that maybe my sisters murderer will be in there or maybe information will be processed.”
She hopes that the push to get guns off the streets will help what she sees as a growing problem.
“The gun violence in our community is like a bad STD, if you don't protect yourself or start doing something different, you are going to keep getting it and it is going to keep coming back.”
OPD said that any time someone helps turn in an illegal gun through Crime Stoppers, it could pay a $1,000 reward.
