The Rev. Michael Pfleger announced Wednesday that he is forming a bus caravan to travel to the nation’s capital to rally for gun control regulation, and urged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to return with him to Chicago for a free schooling on the city’s gun problem.
Members of Pfleger’s St. Sabina parish in Auburn Gresham, along with those from a coalition of other anti-violence organizations, plan to board as many as 10 buses for a Sept. 25 rally they are organizing outside the capitol building in Washington D.C.
“Until we have some federal gun laws, we’re going to continue to see this mass murder going on not just around the country but on the streets of Chicago,” Pfleger said during a news conference in the basement of his church.
“We want to ban assault weapons, we want universal background checks and we want to title guns like cars...It is time, it is past time, to pressure the capital, the legislators of this country, to get some strong gun legislation that protects our citizens.”
Groups from other anti-violence across the nation are expected at the rally as well. Organizers expect well over 1,000 people to attend.
“We’re calling all of Chicago to join us,” Pfleger said of the upcoming journey.
Pfleger also took a moment to lambast Cruz’s recent comments on Twitter attributing Chicago’s restrictive gun laws to its violence.
“It’s sad when you see somebody who holds an elected office be so ignorant and uninformed,” Pfleger said of the Republican senator.
“Come here Sen. Cruz, and let me get in a car and drive you to Chuck’s Guns Shop in Riverdale, or right across the border to Indiana, and show how you can get guns whenever you want,” he added, pointing out the need for federal legislation that would surpass a patchwork of uneven state gun laws.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot laid bare her frustration with Cruz’s comments earlier this week.
“Keep our name out of your mouth,” she said on Twitter.
