Hundreds of Hoosiers fed up with gun violence gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to rally and petition Indiana senators to vote 'yes' on gun reform.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett showed his support as well. Onstage at the rally, Hogsett formally joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nonpartisan coalition of mayors who advocate for gun reform.

"There is so much more to do, and I fear many tears (are) left to cry before common sense prevails," Hogsett said. "If we are to 'bind up the nation’s wounds,' it will only be if each of us has the courage to voice what is true and what is right."

Following his remarks, Hogsett took action by signing the Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns Statement of Principles, which commits Indianapolis and other participating cities to advocating for gun safety legislation, collecting more local gun violence data, implementing strategies to minimize police-involved shootings and investing in additional services for victims of violence, among other initiatives.

The Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America organized the local event as part of Saturday's nationwide call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pull the U.S. Senate out of recess and take a vote on H.R. 8, a resolution to instate background checks on a federal level for gun buyers.

"A person who should not own a gun can still go to a gun show and find an unlicensed seller and they can buy it from them," said Courtney Daily, a local group leader from the organization's Bloomington chapter. "So we are here to encourage our senators. … We want Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back in session, but we also want them to take up these votes.”

The rally was one of three in Indiana — the others in Muncie and Fort Wayne — and dozens across the country that also supported the victims of the recent shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

About 200 people crowded together in front of the Statehouse on Saturday, some from as far as Evansville and South Bend.

Norma Blake drove about half an hour from her home in Greenwood, Indiana, to join the crowd. Blake said she is a mother and a member of the group, but she's also human, and that's why she participated.

"Too many people are dying," Blake said. "We've always had disadvantaged youth. We've always had social outcasts. What has changed is that they are armed."

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Moms Demand Action, a nonpartisan organization, formed shortly after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took 26 lives in 2012. Daily grew up about half an hour from the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and has three sons.

"It felt especially close to home for me. … That was the night that I said, ‘I can’t take this anymore,' " Daily said. "I made a promise to myself that night that I was going to find a way to do something about it."

Rachel Guglielmo, Indiana chapter co-leader of Moms Demand Action, had children in kindergarten at the the time and said she was similarly affected by the Sandy Hook shooting.

Guglielmo was with Moms Demand Action from the beginning, and she said she's seen it balloon in the years since it started.

"When I joined, we were a handful of moms meeting in a Starbucks," Guglielmo said. "And now we're (hundreds of) people."

Steve Hinnefeld and his wife Theresa Malone came from Bloomington on Saturday to "make some noise, show a force, get people excited."

Hinnefeld held a sign calling on Indiana Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun specifically: "Sens. Young + Braun — Bloomington says it's time to VOTE!"

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It sometimes seems like legislators are unnecessarily dragging their feet on gun reform legislation, Hinnefeld said.

"It's a very frustrating situation," Hinnefeld said. "Everyone knows that there's really strong support for these kinds of steps that legislators can make."

Daily said the turnout of the rally was good, but also somewhat expected given recent events.

"After every high profile shooting in the news our membership expands, we get more and more supporters," Daily said. “They’ve finally reached their breaking point and said, ‘Enough.’"

Contact IndyStar reporter London Gibson at 317-444-6043 or LBGibson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @londongibson.

Call IndyStar reporter Casey Smith at 317-444-6176 or email her at casmith@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter @SmithCaseyA.