INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK

11 APRIL 2000
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Empty shoes — and an anniversary

Today, one day before President Clinton recognizes the one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting at Columbine High School, the national grassroots organization Silent March will display of 4,223 pairs of empty shoes representing children and youth killed by guns in a single year. 

Tom Mauser, whose 15-year-old son Daniel was murdered at Columbine, will speak at noon and bring a pair of his son's shoes to add to the display.

The Colorado Silent March is being hosted by Denver gun violence prevention activists, spearheaded by the American Humane Association, a Denver-based national child welfare advocacy organization. It is the kickoff event to Silent Marches in 40 states, culminating this summer with massive shoe protests at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

 Governor Bush and Vice President Gore have been invited to participate in the convention Silent Marches by visiting the displays and bringing shoes of victims that have been delivered to them.

Since 1994, Silent March, a national non-profit committed to reducing the number of gun deaths in America, has organized empty shoe exhibits, or "silent marches" across the country, from the US Capitol to the front gates of the nation's largest gun makers." 

These shoes are reminders of the terrible toll that gun violence takes every day, every week, every month on American families," said Ellen Freudenheim, co-founder of Silent March. "It is important as we approach the anniversary of the nation's worst school shooting, we realize that this is not one single tragedy, but an ongoing story of loss."

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