The advocates of stricter gun-control laws are seen marching over the Brooklyn Bridge toward City Hall in New York, the US, January 21.
Hundreds of mothers in the United States have staged a rally in New York City to demand the enforcement of stricter gun control laws.
The mothers, who were members of a group called One Million Moms for Gun Control, staged the rally on Monday.
The group was founded by Shannon Watts, a mother of five from Indianapolis, after a recent shooting tragedy in the city of Newtown in the US state of Connecticut, in which 20 small children were killed.
On December 14, 2012, the twenty children and six adult victims were fatally shot by a gunman – who also killed himself – at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Earlier in the day, the assailant had killed his own mother.
Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States.
An average of 87 gun-related deaths occurs in the United States each day, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control.
About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the United States at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.
The year 2012 was a record-setting year for gun sales in the US. The year also saw other mass killings, including the Colorado cinema shooting in July that killed 12 people and injured nearly 60 others, and the August shooting spree at a Sikh temple, in which seven were killed.
MR/MA/HJL
