— It happened twice to Karen Walsh, the first time she pushed her stroller past the line of empty shoes and the last. She nearly cried.

"You can't walk by this and not get emotional," she said. "At least not in my mind."

Walsh wasn't the only one. Several got choked up as they walked past the 68 empty pairs of shoes Sunday, symbolizing those killed via gun violence in New Jersey since the Newtown school shooting exactly four months ago.

Each pair of shoes displayed the first name and the age of each person who died in New Jersey. Organizers of the event spoke about the need for change in the nation's gun laws.

"We've had so many great conversations," said Morristown Councilwoman Rebecca Feldman, also of the Morris Area Committee to Reduce Gun Violence, which organized the event with the aid of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Ceasefire NJ.

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It was one of several anti-gun demonstrations throughout northern New Jersey Sunday, according to Mandi Perlmutter, one of the heads of the New Jersey Moms chapter.

On Valentine's Day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Barbara Buono

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Mayor Tim Dougherty and others distributed information to passersby, hoping to convince them to contact government officials and accelerate legislation aimed at reducing gun violence.

"Reducing gun violence is a local issue," Feldman said. "It's very relevant to anyone in any town who knows anyone affected by gun violence. And as soon as you know anyone it's happened to somebody you knew or loved, then you care."

Dougherty said he wanted to see more throughout background checks on gun buyers nationwide, as well as loopholes in gun sales closed.

"There's just a few things they could do right away that the whole country could get behind," he said.

Michael Aaron Rockland, an american studies professor at Rutgers University, pulled over his car as he drove past the line of shoes late Sunday morning. Rockland said during speaking engagements abroad people ask him why America hasn't enacted stricter gun laws.

"They say, 'You know, we like you Americans. But you're crazy,'" Rockland said.

"If we can't get assault rifles out of people's hands, if we can't get magazines out of people's hands, then this will go on and on."

Morristown resident Jennifer Johnson agreed. "I actually don't know why people need guns for anything other than hunting," she said. "But I'm from Oklahoma, where everyone has a gun. So I teeter back and forth."

Walsh grew up in Atlanta and moved to Morristown about 14 years ago. She was a college freshman during the Columbine High School massacre; a mother when 26 people — mostly children — were shot to death in Newtown, Conn., exactly four months ago Sunday.

So when Walsh doubled back to take in the sight of empty pairs of shoes, she asked herself a question.

"Why did he have those guns?" Walsh said, referring to Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza. "It's a very emotional thing."