LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Recent spikes in gun violence, including the Old National Bank mass shooting back in April, have a Louisville woman concerned about guns.
She’s advocating for more gun control and wants to know what federal officials are doing about the trend.
Jackie Floyd’s known as the mayor of the Russell neighborhood.
“It’s because I’m everywhere. I’m always voicing my opinion,” Floyd said.
She knows what topics are important to her neighbors and is a voice for them when necessary.
“I always go speak up for the residents because I feel like I’m a resident,” Floyd said. “And most of us residents, we have the same concerns. We want to live in a safe, clean environment. We want to be heard, we want to be respected.”
On her mind, lately, is safety. More specifically, safety arising from gun violence.
“Want to talk about gun control?” she asked while she made dinner at her home.
It’s a big question for her, because for her the answer of addressing mental illness is not enough.
“When there’s a mass shooting, the first thing people go to is being mentally ill,” Floyd said. “And they want to tighten up those restrictions, regulations, OK. But they’re not asking the question: how did the… gun get in the hand of the shooter?”
She often talks about how she no longer feels safe to go out of her home once it gets dark.
“The only time that I leave my house after it gets dark, it has to be an emergency. And that means it has to be one of my sisters, or one of my children or one of my grandchildren for me to leave this house after it gets dark,” Floyd said.
And she wants her lawmakers to do something about it.
“I don’t feel safe. I’m 70 years old. So if somebody approached me, the only thing I could do is just give it to him,” Floyd said. “But now the robbers and thieves or whoever with a gun, they just don’t take it you know, where they [say], ‘Give me your car, give me your keys, give me a purse.’ They take it a step further and now they want to shoot you or do more.”
Federal action
In a recent town hall meeting in Louisville, congressional representative Morgan McGarvey spoke on the issue.
McGarvey joined the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force in Congress. He said the task force has reached out to individual members of the Republican party to come to a common ground solution.
“Where can we actually work to solve these problems? And we’ve got to take action,” McGarvey said. “Because the violence in our communities is getting too much. We’ve got to make sure we have safe, sensible gun policies on the books that keep all of us protected.”
McGarvey said this is an urgent issue not only for Kentucky, but across the country to tackle the problem of gun violence.