PARAMUS — 2018's Vigil for Gun Violence Victims, timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shootings, brought something new, a sense of hope.

For state Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-37) the vigil held Sunday at Paramus' Central Unitarian Church was as hopeful as she can remember.

"I didn't have a lot of optimism," Weinberg said. Little was done after Sandy Hook in 2012, or Orlando in 2016 or Las Vegas in 2017, she intimated.

Yet she told the 60 or so present that her hope is being rekindled.

For one, the electorate, especially New Jerseyans, gave her party the majority in the House of Representatives. This may lead to actions such as letting the Centers for Disease Control to resume studying gun violence, she said.

Secondly, and she said this was huge, the next generation of voters mobilized after the Feb. 14 Parkland Shootings.

"They are the reason," Weinberg said, pointing to Ridgewood sophomore Laurence Fine and Northern Valley Demarest senior Ishita Jamar.

Jamar and Fine are leaders of Students Demand Action, Bergen County, and are organizing their peers to push for sensible gun laws. They are part of a larger national group that formed after Parkland.

It is unacceptable for students to go to school afraid, Fine said.

"Parklandwoke me up," he said.

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Students Demand Action has registered between 500 and 600 hundred seniors who reached the voting age, the pair told the audience.

For Lisa O'Donoghue of the Bergen Chapter of Moms Demand Action, the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which on Dec. 14, 2012 left 20 students and six staff members dead, was their impetus.

Like Weinberg, O'Donoghue said the forming of Students Demand Action after Parkland and the recent midterm elections represent a sea change in a battle for sensible gun laws.

Moms with the help of other like minded groups like Gays Against Guns are not just seeking to change the hearts and minds of politicians but the general population.

"We are looking for a change in culture," she said.

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For too long talking about guns has been taboo, she said. For instance, she doesn't want parents to be afraid to ask when setting up a play date or when their kids babysit whether the house contain guns and are they safely stored.

"If they are allergic to dogs or have a peanut allergy parents routinely ask whether the house has either," she said.

Next is to exert a constant pressure on legislators to enact gun legislation, like universal background checks or closing gun show and internet gun sale loopholes.

By organizing politically, Moms Demand Action has 5 million supporters, and writing letters and phone calls, they feel they might be finally overcoming the politicians' fear of the gun lobby.

"We want them more afraid of us," O'Donoghue said and results like the midterms stoke that fear.

For church member Brooke Cannata, it has fostered a marginal sense of hope that the political inertia associated with gun laws can be overcome. There's been a steady increase in mass shootings since Sandy Hook but no action federally.

"I really can't explain why we aren't motivated enough," she said.

The annual vigil has been held for the past several years and is sponsored by Brady Campaign and Moms Demand Action.

Email: fagan@northjersey.com