BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Volunteers and gun violence survivors, including U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, State Senator Will Haskell, State Representative Jillian Gilchrest, State Representative Steve Stafstrom, Abbey Clements (a member of the Everytown Survivor Network, who was a second-grade teacher during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook School. Abbey was able to keep her students safe before the police arrived and everyone in her classroom survived), Tara Donnelly Gottlieb (volunteer with Connecticut Moms Demand Action and a member of the Everytown Survivor Network whose parents, Tim and Kim Donnelly, were shot and killed with a stolen gun during a robbery of their jewelry store in Fairfield, in 2005), Jennifer Lawlor (a volunteer with Connecticut Moms Demand Action and a member of the Everytown Survivor Network, whose 25 year old daughter, Emily, was shot and killed on December 9, 2018, in Connecticut), Aquil Crooks of StreetSafe Bridgeport, and Latoya Johnson, Gun Violence Angels, along with the Connecticut chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of the Everytown for Gun Safety, will host a panel in honor of survivors of gun violence as part of the annual National Gun Violence Survivors Week, February 1-8. They will unveil the Moments That Survive Story Wall, which is a display of photos and personal stories from Connecticut gun violence survivors that will illustrate the effect gun violence has had on their lives.

The event will take place at Bridgeport City Hall Annex, 999 Broad Street (not at the old City Hall on Lyon Terrace), Saturday, February 8, from 2-3:30 pm

With a gun death rate 11 times greater than other high-income nations, by early February, more Americans are killed with guns than are killed with guns in our peer countries in an entire calendar year. During National Gun Violence Survivors Week and throughout the year, those affected by gun violence share their stories on the Moments That Survive memory wall and on social media using #MomentsThatSurvive. These stories will come to life at dozens of events throughout the country during National Gun Violence Survivors Week.