They stood in a circle in the parking lot of an East Side community center on a chilly Monday afternoon, five days after Kansas City’s Super Bowl parade and rally ended with the death of Lisa Lopez-Galvan and nearly two dozen wounded.

A circle of 60, or thereabouts, so it wasn’t all that small of a gathering, but far smaller than it should have been for as big of a problem with gun violence as Kansas City has, Rosilyn Temple said.

“This parking lot should be packed,” said Temple, founder of the Kansas City chapter of Mothers in Charge, a national violence prevention group. “This is a community problem.”

Last week’s fatal shooting prompted the vigil’s timing, but if Kansas Citians were to hold one for every homicide, we’d have them every other day. There were 182 homicides last year, Temple said, and 176 the year before.

“This is not normal that we are allowed to be OK in our community for this to happen,” Temple said. “But it’s been normal that we’ve been having homicides, day in and day out for years and years. We have a problem.”

How to solve that problem? Several speakers took turns at the microphone to offer suggestions behind Mohart Multi-Purpose Center.

Kansas City police Major Tim Hernandez said the cops need help preventing the violence. Many of the shootings that plague the city are the result of beefs between groups and individuals, he said. Chief Stacey Graves said last week that an argument likely sparked the shooting in which Lopez-Galvan was caught in the crossfire.

“A lot of it stems around a lack of conflict resolution,” Hernandez said. “Those are skills that are taught in the homes, in the schools, in the neighborhoods, in the churches.”

Three pastors agreed. Among them was the Rev. Mark Clifton of Reach Raytown Church, who for more than a dozen years has called attention to the tragedy of gun violence by organizing an event on the winter solstice called the Longest Night Ever. On that night in December, event organizers honor homicide victims by planting white crosses with their names on them.

“I think we as churches, as pastors have to examine ourselves and say, what have we done? What have we not done? Where are we lacking?” Clifton said.

“Everyone always says it’s the parents fault. It’s the parents fault when it’s teenagers involved. What have we done to help those parents? How can we come alongside them and help them raise some of these kids that are so troubled and so difficult? They need our help.”

At the end of the event, Temple noted that so far this year, there have been 13 homicides in Kansas City. She asked everyone to raise one of the plastic tea candles that were handed out as folks arrived earlier and to repeat these words:

“We will not allow this in Kansas City, Missouri,” she said, and they echoed her. “We say today we stop the violence. We’re gonna save a life.”

They said those words, too. And then they all left, praying that there would be no need for another vigil, but knowing they would gather again, because there will likely be many, many more victims before the year is out. In fact, Temple was off by a couple. There have been 15 so far this year, close to last year’s record pace.

And it’s only February.