How Highland Park parade shooting turned some survivors into advocates

Ashbey Beasley was looking forward to walking in Highland Park's July 4 parade last year, especially since she would be joined by her then 6-year-old son, Beau.

The Highland Park resident didn't realize that she soon would walk a different path - one that would carry her to the halls of the U.S. Capitol, across social media channels and into the homes of television viewers nationwide.

The hail of gunfire, the bloodshed and the lingering trauma in Highland Park that day spawned a wave of activism that swept up Beasley and others who are committed to gun reforms such as “red flag” and safe storage laws and a ban on the sale of military-style rifles.

Beasley, who watched her son lay face down on the ground while repeating “I don't want to die” last Independence Day, has been a relentless advocate since.

“In the year since Highland Park, I have seen Ashbey Beasley in my office as much as anyone outside my own staff,” said U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Highland Park and member of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “She has even earned airtime on Fox News explaining the urgency of the gun violence epidemic. My advice to those defending the gun lobby would be, 'Do not stand in the way of a mother protecting her children.'”

Beasley went viral in March, after she happened to be in Nashville visiting her sister-in-law when a shooter killed three students and three teachers at a local elementary school. Beasley headed to the school and watched a news conference, after which she was captured on camera shouting to reporters, “Aren't you guys tired of being here and having to cover all of these mass shootings?”

Today, Beasley posts videos on Instagram that provide information about gun violence. She also has a website, hometownadvocacy.org, that encourages voters to “skip the trip to DC” and request hometown meetings with their lawmakers to enlist their support.

“You're more likely to get a meeting with your lawmaker here than you are in (Washington) D.C., because when they're in their own districts, they prioritize constituent meetings. Our government was designed to be local,” she said.

Fellow Highland Park resident Stephanie Jacobs, who was seated across the street from where the gunman opened fire on parade spectators, has been involved in advocacy since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. Just days before the parade, she helped organize a rally in support of victims of the May 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.

After the July 4 shooting, she traveled several times to Washington and met with the founder of Newtown Action Alliance, a national grass-roots organization that grew in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. She now sits on the alliance's advisory board.

Also swept up in the wave of advocacy was Abby Kisicki, a then 23-year-old about to start work as a research coordinator at Northwestern University. She was with her parents in Highland Park's Port Clinton Square when gunfire erupted and the parade crowd scattered. She scraped her knee as she sprinted toward an escape route between two buildings at the square.

She later found out that her father had barely escaped being hit by a bullet, which struck a window just above his head.

Kisicki logs onto Zoom for weekly #EndGunViolence Lunch & Lobby sessions hosted by Newtown Action Alliance, which connects activists from other states and offers a tool kit and other information about gun violence prevention events and rallies.

Her appetite for these connections grew and she helped start Monday evening sessions.

“I really love connecting people with their power,” she said.

Kisicki represents a new ripple in the wave of gun violence prevention advocacy - Gen Z, a generation that grew up on lockdown drills, active shooter drills and mass shootings, and is impatient with politicians willing to wait for change.

“It's this idea of not being taken advantage of,” she said of her advocacy. “That really defines Gen Z. We're not going to take it anymore.”

“I think Gen Z is going to be pivotal in the next election,” Beasley added. “I think that they are ready to dismantle our government and vote everybody out and vote in the lawmakers who are going to step up and take action.”

Activists say there has been progress, such as the passage of the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which banned the future sale of military-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines, while raising the minimum age to purchase or own a weapon.

“I feel that every single day that it is illegal to buy assault weapons is another day that we've prevented a mass shooting, that we've saved a life, that we've saved a community,” Beasley said.

Jacobs said she is hopeful because no one wants children to die.

“Everyone can agree on that across the aisle.”

She is frustrated at the polarization in Washington, especially on an issue involving public safety, but encouraged that House Democrats are bringing gun violence prevention measures to the floor.

“It's the first time I've personally seen any sort of strategy from the side of gun violence prevention, versus the strategy we have seen coming from the other side,” Jacobs said. “The other side has done a very good job of pushing their message forward and legislating for their interests.”

She also is concerned about a proposed federal assault weapons ban stalling in the U.S. Senate.

“By not bringing these bills to the floor, they're complicit. They are not protecting their citizens,” she said. “I want our country to be back to what it was, the land of the free. It's not the unfettered freedom to own a gun. It's the freedom to go to a parade and celebrate your country without fear that somebody in the crowd is going to indiscriminately shoot bullets and kill people.”