Several local interfaith congregations and organizations will spend Mother’s Day marching against gun violence in Topeka and across Kansas.

The Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, said the March to Reduce Gun Violence will commemorate victims of gun violence and also to support efforts to reduce gun violence in Topeka and in Kansas.

The event will feature speakers from several organizations, including faith leaders and students from area universities; recognition of police chaplains; and a remembrance of gun violence victims from the past year.

The march will start at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Temple Beth Sholom, 4200 S.W. Munson, and end at Gage Park, S.W. 10th and Gage.

"At least 12 Topekans were murdered by guns in 2015," Oglesby-Dunegan said in a news release. "And this doesn’t include suicides or accidental gun deaths. Yet Kansas has some of the most lax gun violence prevention laws in the country. We’re coming together to try to change that."

Oglesby-Dunegan is the convener of Heeding God’s Call, a local faith-based organization that works to limit gun violence.

The coalition’s goals include postponing the date — now scheduled for June 2017 — on which Kansas Board of Regents institutions will be required to allow concealed carry of firearms in buildings that don’t have security measures.

Other recommended measures from Heeding God’s Call include mandatory background checks on all gun purchases and preventing domestic abusers from obtaining firearms.

"As people of faith, we know all too well the human cost behind the gun-violence statistics," said Oglesby-Dunegan. "We bury the dead and try to comfort the mourners. But what we’d like to see is public policy that recognizes these human costs and addresses them."

The march is sponsored by the Topeka Center for Peace and Justice, Topekans Against Gun Violence and Kansas Interfaith Action.