MORTON — On their second full day of campaigning as running mates, Chris Kennedy and Ra Joy brought their anti-violence message to voters at the Morton Pumpkin Festival.

Both men, seeking the Democratic nomination for governor and lieutenant governor, lost family members to gun violence: Kennedy's father, Robert F. Kennedy, was slain while running for president in 1968; Joy's son Xavier was shot and killed in June in Chicago.

Sitting at a table next to a line snaking around the block at the Pumpkin Grille food tent — Joy bedecked in an orange-accented tie — the duo outlined a multi-point plan to address the issue that has dominated headlines in shooting-prone Chicago and has vexed leaders in downstate communities including Peoria.

"All of the issues around violence in our communities have been solved in other places. New York and Los Angeles don't have these problems like we do in Chicago," Kennedy said. "We can take their ideas, but first of all we need a commitment. I believe if the governor and the mayor (of Chicago) were committed to ending violence, we'd end it."

Providing chances for jobs and education in neighborhoods wracked by violence is key, Kennedy said.

"We believe opportunity is the enemy of violence," he said.

The pair would also increase a focus on reducing the flow of illegal guns into communities, particularly Chicago.

"Legal guns have never been the issue — it's the illegal ones," Kennedy said, describing a rising problem with gang thefts of guns from poorly secured train cars that end up sitting along sidings or in rail yards for days because of transportation bottlenecks in the rail network around Chicagoland.

He'd also restore funding to programs that help divert kids off the streets and give them other things to do besides fall in with gangs, and Kennedy emphasized the need for treatment not only of the victim but of family members and friends affected by — or who, in many cases, witnessed — shootings.

"We need to recognize that entire communities are suffering from trauma, and that trauma needs to be treated with social-emotional learning in grade schools and high schools," he said, also citing the need for continued work on criminal justice reform.

Joy said that as part of the healing process after his son's death, he and his family reached out to a number of families, including Kennedy's, that had experience with gun violence. The government reform advocate who headed Change Illinois praised his running mate's depth of understanding on the subject.

"One of the things I really admire and appreciate about Chris — not just on this, but on many issues — is that not only does he understand the issue, but he has a plan to solve it," Joy said.

Kennedy's campaign also highlighted his endorsement Friday by former U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, whose district included Fulton and Knox counties locally.