Highland Park mayor pleads for more gun control month after parade shooting: 'I will not stop trying'

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told Lake County officials that devastating gun violence will come to their communities, too, if they don’t do something to stop it.

In a meeting of the Lake County Committee of the Whole in Waukegan, she said her community is scarred but pushing for safety and stronger gun control laws.

Rotering said Highland Park marked the one-month milestone of the Fourth of July parade shooting with sadness and resolve to advocate for change.

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She thanked the neighboring North Chicago community for apprehending the suspected shooter and asked leaders of Lake County to join in her mission to get an assault weapons ban on the state and national level.

She told the group that the weapon used to kill seven and wound dozens more in Highland Park that day, was purchased legally.

She urged the lawmakers to support laws that protect the public, and said she has learned about her community in the past month, 

"Our children knew exactly what to do on the Fourth of July because they have been training for an active shooter their entire lives," Rotering said. "What on earth does this say about us as a society? This shooting was a reminder that action against the gun violence epidemic is needed now. We are uniquely positioned to meet this moment of national urgency. I promised my community as a mayor, as a neighbor, as a parent, as a child of Highland Park, as a human being, I will not stop trying."

Rotering said she has had to become an expert on assault weapons and their destructive nature.

Lake County officials said if gun violence continues, more money will have to be spent for crime fighting technology and funding resources to support the victims and witnesses of violence.