Monday, June 12, 2000 | 3:12 a.m.
Juan and Irene Rangel of Sun Valley have donated their late son's shoes to the Silent March, an event that hopes to gather thousands of shoes across the country for gun-violence victims.
"If my son's shoes could talk, they would tell the world to stop the violence," Juan Rangel told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
His son, Juan Alonso Rangel Acosta, 18, was gunned down April 28 outside a Sparks motel. A gang member has been charged with the Reed High School junior's death.
The Reno Friends Meeting and the Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace have collected about 300 pairs of shoes in northern Nevada as part of the nationwide campaign.
Their goal is to collect 389 pairs of shoes, one for each person who died of gun violence in Nevada in 1997, the latest year for which statistics are available.
The shoes were displayed Sunday at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Reno.
They also will be displayed this summer with 30,000 other pairs from across the nation at the national Republican and Democratic conventions.
"We'd like for people to join us in helping to ensure that guns are never used to kill people," said Patsy Gehr of Sierra Interfaith.
Organizers hope the visual impact of the 30,000 pairs of shoes will humanize the gun problem and prod lawmakers to action.
Gehr said organizers are not out to ban guns, but to seek what they call sensible, comprehensive regulation of the gun industry.
That includes strict oversight of the design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and ownership of firearms, she said.
"The gun situation has gotten out of control," Gehr said. "We want stricter controls. At the same time, we want people to realize that legislation alone won't do. We have to work to create a society where there is no violence."
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