The prospect of major gun-control legislation brought a Rotunda-ful of people to the Capitol over the noon hour Thursday.

“This bill will save lives,” called out Mary Dieudonne Hill, a gun violence survivor from Homewood. “I am pleading with you: save our children and our families and all of our communities across Illinois!”

Added Lyric Harris, a 16-year-old Chicagoan, “By the minute. By the hour. Even a second! A lot of eyes are being closed. A lot of bodies are ending up below the ground. And a lot of people are seeing the Heavenly Gates too early!

“That was not God’s plan for them.”

The legislature’s lame duck session ends Tuesday.