CLEVELAND — A Cleveland group hopes their roughly 140-mile journey to the state capital on Saturday was a step towards tackling what they say is a nationwide gun violence epidemic.
The Lady Trend Setters Motorcycle Club, which has all-female chapters in both Cleveland and Buffalo, New York, has led protest rides, fundraising events, and school supply giveaways in the past. Saturday, the women-focused their activism on gun violence.
“The shooting in Texas really took me over,” said Annette Rodriguez. “We’ve all experienced knowing somebody that’s been killed by these crazed weapons, things like that.”
Tammi MacCannon, one of the founders of the club, said she didn't want to be "that person" who gets a call about an incident at school.
“That really just hit my heart and I really just felt like I didn’t want to be that person that gets that call that something has happened at their school," she added. "I just felt like something needed to be done.”
In mid-May, 10 people were killed and 3 others injured in a shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
Later that month, 19 school children and 2 teachers died when a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
7 people died and dozens of others were injured in another mass shooting event at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks U.S. shootings, there have been 367 mass shootings in the country so far in 2022. A mass shooting is defined as a shooting event with a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.
The organization tracks all gun violence and in Ohio, found 5,785 deaths connected to shootings in 2022.
The staggering statistics resonated with many of the Lady Trend Setters MC riders. They put out a call to action among Ohio motorcycle clubs and organized a protest ride from Cleveland to Columbus.
“We all have kids, we all have moms, we all have sisters, brothers,” said MacCannon. “We all share the same passion for [fighting] gun violence. I know motorcycle clubs get a bad rap, but not all of us are bad.”
Fellow riders joined the Cleveland group along their route and at the Statehouse Saturday. They rallied at the capital, calling on lawmakers to ban assault weapons and focus on keeping firearms out of the wrong hands.
“They definitely need to go back to the drawing board because what we have in place right now is not going to make America safe again,” MacCannon said.
The rally came after the General Assembly passed a law allowing any qualifying adult to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. The same day the law went into effect, the governor also signed a law to allow teachers
Proponents believe the measures will help improve public safety. Groups, like the Lady Trend Setters MC, disagree.
Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure that would make it illegal to sell, manufacture, transfer, possess or import assault weapons or large-capacity ammunition feeding devices. Analysts don’t believe the legislation will pass the Senate, which would require 10 Republicans to vote in favor of the bill to overcome a filibuster.
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