KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- At the corner of 43rd Street and State Line Road on Thursday, several anti-gun-violence groups gathered to remember victims of gun violence across the country. The event they do every year started as a way to remember the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Connecticut but now has evolved into bringing attention to gun violence in the city. Gang members sentenced for January shooting at Crown Center “School shootings are extremely tragic and traumatic,” said Amanda Winch, with Johnson County Mothers Demand Action. “We also acknowledge that the issue of gun violence is far more pervasive than school shootings. We are coming together across state lines with Kansas and Missouri groups that are anti-anti-gun violence groups. We're joining together acknowledging that this is a really big problem,” she added. Joining members of Winch’s chapter were moms from Wyandotte County Kansas, and Kansas City Missouri as well as KC Mothers in Charge and other advocates. Joining them this year were students from Olathe East Students Demand Action, who started the group after a shooting happened there on March 4, 2022. “I just remember this feeling of desperation for information. I didn't know what was going on. I was panicked,” Grace Springer remembered. She was a freshman at the time and is one of the founders of their organization. “I don't think people realize how small these instances of gun violence are, they are so prominent, and they have lasting effects.” Her peers remembered a similar experience. “That feeling I had that day? No one deserves to feel like that,” said Ellena Kalihamwe. “No one deserves to feel like they're unsafe, especially at school, because school's supposed to be a place where we learn our place, where we're supposed to feel safe.” Being in high school hasn’t stopped them from advocating, however, Alexis Moraah thinks that she shouldn’t have to. “It's kind of like off-putting to know that I’m having to stand out here to tell people it’s wrong to hold a gun at the wrong time,” she said. Miami County teen charged with murder after 15-year-old’s death Winch mentioned that while they fight for more responsible gun ownership, there are still guns making their way into schools in the Kansas City area. “Just a few days ago at Shawnee Mission South, there was a gun that got onto school grounds,” she said. “That, to me, as a parent of children in public schools, is completely unacceptable. Those kinds of things happen in all of our school districts and, you know, happen far too frequently. I mean, they really shouldn't happen at all.”