“They’ve lost all hope,” said Onoyemi Williams with Faith in Action Alabama. “And so they’re turning to the one thing that allows them to have a sense of power again, and that is a weapon, which is a gun.”

Williams said it’s time faith leaders and city leaders seek those hopeless people out, to let them know they are loved and that picking up a gun is not the answer.

They read aloud the names of the 51 people killed by gun violence this year as people prayed for the loved ones they left behind.

“I’m just always appalled and just devastated,” said New Hope Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Gregory L. Clarke. “But I believe there’s change coming, and things will get better.”

Mayor Woodfin said the first steps to seeing an end to violence is to encourage people to cooperate and to diminish the fear people have of coming forward with information.

After losing his own brother to gun violence, Mayor Woodfin ended his speech with a very personal plea for everyone in that room to take action.

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