(AllHipHop News) “Tell Congress to support common sense reform so no more innocent children are killed, and no parent has to go through this heartbreak.”
Those are the closing words of a new gun control public service announcement narrated by Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton. Cowley-Pendleton is the mother of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old honor student who was gunned down in Chicago just days after performing with her high school band at President Obama’s second inauguration.
Hadiya was shot in a park on the South Side of the city while she and her friends stood under a canopy to get out of the rain. Two suspects were arrested for Hadiya’s murder. Michael Ward, 18, and 20-year-old Kenneth Williams, have been charged by the Chicago Police Department as the shooter and getaway driver in the case.
[ALSO READ: Chicago Police Says Gang Involved In Hadiya Pendleton Murder Named After Lil Wayne Lyric]
Pendleton’s tragic death become a national story and once again thrust the ongoing violence in the streets of Chicago into mainstream media headlines.
While many observers and victims of the gang-related violence in Chicago had been calling on President Obama to weigh in on the war-like death rates happening in his adopted hometown, the President had remain mostly silent on the issue.
It was Pendleton’s murder that finally pushed President Obama to comment on the violence in Chicago. He even mentioned Hadiya in his State of the Union Address last week as an example of why new gun control legislation like universal background checks and limiting the amount of ammunition in magazine clips is needed.
Cowley-Pendleton and her husband were seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama at the Capitol as President Obama gave a passionate appeal to lawmakers to pass new laws that would help prevent more unnecessary deaths as a result of gun violence.
[ALSO READ: 5 Takeaways From President Obama’s State of the Union Address]
Hadiya’s mother has fully embraced her new role as a gun control advocate. In the 30-second ad sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, she promotes the passage of a new federal law for background checks for all gun sales.
You can watch the MAIG ad featuring Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton below.
[ALSO READ: AllHipHop.com’s Past Coverage of the Violence in Chicago]