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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) – Nessa Bleill used to go to the Highland Park Fourth of July parade almost every year with her family.
“It’s something that I really held close to my heart and would always look forward to every single year,” Bleill said.
But all of those happy memories the Champaign Central High School senior created there faded away in 2022. A mass shooter opened fire at the parade that year, killing seven people.
“I wanted to take that anger and turn it into motivation to fight this and to get other students to help me fight this and use our young voices to make real policy changes,” Bleill said.
That motivation turned into helping found a chapter of Students Demand Action at Champaign Central High School, the first to be started in the Champaign area. It’s a national organization with local chapters across the country made up of high school and college students fighting to end gun violence.
“I had been involved with fighting gun violence before, but it wasn’t until I became a survivor and experienced it firsthand that I really wanted to get more involved and share my story and share other stories and really do my part to help prevent gun violence,” Bleill said.
Bleill joined other gun control advocates and survivors in Springfield on Tuesday calling on lawmakers to pass bills aimed at helping those impacted by gun violence.
One is called Karina’s bill, named after Karina Gonzalez. Her husband is accused of shooting and killing her and her 15-year-old daughter Daniela. Gonzalez had filed an order of protection against him.
The proposal would require law enforcement to take firearms away from an accused abuser when an order or protection is granted.
“An order of protection is simply not enough to protect victims, the weapons must go,” Monica Alvarez, Gonzalez’s cousin, said during the rally. “While it is a good start, it’s just not enough. Our laws must be strengthened, and firearms must be removed from the hands of abusers.”
Another proposal advocates want to see passed would help families of unsolved murder or cold case victims. It would allow them to ask law enforcement to review cases that happened more than three years prior to a family applying for the case file to be reviewed.
“When no one’s held accountable, people will continue to shoot and murder other people so it’s important for justice,” Yolanda Androzzo, the executive director of One Aim Illinois, said. “Our survivors, they deserve justice, they deserve to know who took their loved one from them.”
When Bleill graduates, she is planning on attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study political science. She has her sights set on becoming a politician to continue that mission.
“I just feel like it’s a way for me to really, really solidify change and continue to do that for future generations,” Bleill said.
After helping lead the charge to get Students Demand Action up and running at her school, Bleill said other chapters of the organization also popped up in the area.
