A McComb woman wanted to do something after seeing the many walkouts and rallys in support of the Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School students in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people died last month.
Patti Brabham said after she saw thousands of students protesting, she decided to hold a March for Our Lives rally in McComb.
The rally is set from 10 a.m. until noon Saturday near the Breakpoint Marathon, 203 Edgewood Drive.
Brabham said there are thousands of rallies planned around the country and a huge rally planned in Washington, D.C. The rallies are to encourage lawmakers to take another look at the gun laws.
She said it’s a chance for those in Pike County to speak up and out against gun violence and for safer schools, communities and families.
“This is a non-partisan rally,” Brabham said. “Anyone can come.”
She said it’s also not limited to Pike County. Anyone in the area that wants to speak out can come.
“People in small towns don’t think it can happen to them, until it happens to them,” she said. “I bet people in Parkland thought it could never happen there, either. It’s not just our schools. It’s our churches, our shopping centers, our kindergartens.”
Brabham said the Parkland shooting reminded her of the Pearl High School shooting that happened Oct. 1, 1997.
“He was mad at his mom, and he took it out on his schoolmates,” she said of Pearl shooter Luke Woodham. “You never know. You don’t know what anyone is thinking.”
Brabham, a former special education teacher in McComb and a mother, said her heart broke when she saw the protests, and she had to do something.
She said students deal with a lot and she’s a big supporter of mental health. Brabham said she saw a lot during her time as a teacher.
“I was active in the National Alliance for Mental Illnesses,” she said. “There are ways that you can tell that a child may have a mental illness. When I worked at the school, McComb had a mental illness counselor. Now, there are some who will try to get out of class, but there are some that you can tell.”
She said there’s also a rally planned in Jackson but because it’s an hour and half away, she didn’t think many from the area would make the trip.
“I couldn’t imagine losing my children to anything,” she said. “But to lose them to something so senseless, a school shooting, when they’re at school to learn ... I couldn’t imagine.”
She said she reached out to her sister-in-law Margery Freeman.
“Margery has participated and organized many rallies and protests in America, and I knew she could help me,” she said.
The two began brainstorming and wanted to do their own rally in support. So, they reached out to March for our Lives and registered.
“It’s a short form, but it was hard. It kept kicking me out. I forgot to put my phone number,” she said, laughing.
After registering the event, Brabham said she and Freeman reached out to many in the community who would help.
“We wanted it to be in a central location and we knew Veterans Memorial would work,” she said.
Brabham said she then called Rob Surrett at Breakpoint and he graciously said yes to her request to hold the rally at the store.
“He said it without hesitation and I’m grateful for that,” she said.
She and Freeman said they want the rally to begin conversations. They just want to make an impact.
“If we get five people there, we’ve done good. If we get 20 people there, that’s good, too,” Freeman said.
Brabham said the students should have a voice.
“To see those students in Parkland speak so well was inspiring,” she said. “Now, I don’t agree with civil disobedience, but when it’s done right and they’re the ones affected, they should have a voice.”
And she doesn’t agree that teachers should be armed.
“Teachers should be allowed to teach. They have enough to worry about already, they don’t need to be armed,” she said.
She commended Greg Gilmore, Safety Director at McComb High School.
“He’s done a great job over there,” she said.
Brabham said training a teacher how to use a firearm would also require funding.
“Don’t get me started on that one,” she said.
She said she hopes the conversation also pushes stronger gun laws. She said Mississippi doesn’t have the strongest gun laws and that concerns her.
“There are loopholes in them and ways to get around the law,” she said.
According to the law, a person under the age of 18 isn’t allowed to own or possess a firearm unless they’ve attended a hunter’s safety course or a firearms training course.
The age that a person can attend the course is 16. “They can say, ‘I’ve been shooting since I was 10,’ ” she said.
