“We are all now part of the club nobody wants to be a part of,” said Lauren Brown, a former elementary school teacher, who, with Alexi Vahlkamp, a social worker, were the co-organizers of a Tuesday night meeting in Highland Park of a local chapter of a gun violence prevention group, Moms Demand Action.
Brown is speaking to about 140 people — mostly women — gathered in the main sanctuary of Makom Solel Lakeside, a synagogue in Highland Park, as 227 watched on the livestream. Some 515 people registered for the event, with the high interest, of course, sparked by the Highland Park July 4 parade massacre, where a gunman killed seven and wounded dozens of others with an assault rifle.
