BATON ROUGE - Members of the community hit the streets of Baton Rouge, taking a stand against gun violence ahead of the 4th of July holiday.

"If we don't open our mouths and get involved to make a difference, to take our neighborhoods back, to take our streets back, to take our communities back, then guns will rule," Community Activist Cathy Toliver said.

Toliver says the march was planned after a conversation with a senior citizen in the community who was worried about gunfire during the Fourth of July.

"So, today, we are jump-starting to let people know, put the guns down, don't start shooting on the 4th, you don't have to do that, get you something else to do," Toliver said.

The group marched down Winbourne Avenue holding posters and yelling chants, like "save our kids".

As of earlier this week, there have been 12 juvenile homicides in East Baton Rouge Parish this year.

Community activist Elizabeth Robinson says there needs to be more programs and structure for the youth.

"Truancy needs to be on some of these kids, that's not at school, it's a lot, because a lot of people are in poverty, you know, so poverty is one of our main problems with gun violence," Robinson said.

Natasha Tate continues to fight for justice for her son, Donte Tate, who was killed in a drive-by shooting back in 2023.

"Doing the walk, like this, every now and then for the community, it will get bigger and bigger, and then they'll realize we do care. they have family that needs they family, they have parents that care about their kids, and y'all are steady taking away people's kids, no," Tate said.