(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Last year’s 4th of July parade shooting in Highland Park spurred many of the people who survived it to get involved in changing gun laws.
Martin Rossen was watching with his wife and young children next to Ross’s Cosmetics and can’t get the sound of gunshots out of his memory, he says.
He tells WBBM Newsradio he felt compelled to turn some of that emotional trauma into action, so he became a board member of One Aim Illinois.
So did fellow Highland Park resident Scott Tinkoff, who was watching the parade with his own young children.
Neither family was injured in the shooting that killed seven people and wounded dozens of others.
Tinkoff says going to Capitol Hill soon after the tragedy was demoralizing when he realized how hard it would be to change gun laws nationally.
As leaders for the non-profit, both men helped push for the state’s assault weapons ban and new restrictions on marketing guns to children.
Just last week, a federal appellate court heard a challenge to the ban on assault weapons.
Rossen and Tinkoff said they’ve decided it’s best for their families not to attend Highland Park’s muted schedule of events this on July 4.
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