HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. – What was once a parade atmosphere turned this year into a memorial ceremony and community walk, in the suburban Chicago village of Highland Park.
It was one year ago a gunman opened fire on a parade there, killing seven people and injuring dozens.
Tuesday, the community came together to remember, including Governor JB Pritzker.
“This community remembers all the other communities that are suffering from gun violence – including Chicago, including Rockford, including Peoria, and that’s a wonderful thing about the people in this community,” said Pritzker, to reporters. “We all should be thinking about everyone who is under threat of gun violence from semi-automatic weapons, and who’s actually suffered from a mass shooting.”
The alleged gunman, Robert Crimo III, 19, and his father, Robert Crimo II, both face charges in the case.
Pritzker called the younger Crimo a “madman.”
“It is, because of him, that all of us took action, that we want people who, like him, to go to jail, to go to prison, and, very importantly, never to be able to get a hold of the kinds of weapons that he was able to get a hold of.”
That action is an assault weapons ban, passed earlier this year. It’s the sort of thing that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) would like to see happen federally.
“We don’t have enough senators to vote for gun safety legislation,” said Durbin, to reporters. “We have 52 or so who will show up. We need 60. That’s been a problem and challenge for decades.”
Durbin praised Illinois lawmakers and Pritzker for getting an assault weapons ban passed – this, despite the fact it is currently under several legal challenges.
