- March for Our Lives was founded by teens who survived the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.
- Some 40,000 people demonstrated under gray skies and light rain in Washington, DC, according to organizers.
- In Kentucky, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer told the crowd that gun violence “must stop and can stop.”
WASHINGTON — Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the nation’s capital and across the country to advocate for tougher gun control laws after a recent spate of mass shootings, including in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers they were killed in a school, and in Buffalo, New York, where 10 black people were attacked in a grocery store.
About 40,000 people showed up in DC, according to the organizers, and daytime protests were also planned in major cities, including New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. About 300 people showed up to protest in West Melbourne, Florida, and about 400 people marched through Old Town in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The March for Our Lives events come four years after the organization was founded by teens who survived the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. That year, more than 1 million people demonstrated in Washington.
This time, things must be different, several speakers repeated. They regretted that no action was taken after Sandy Hook or after Marjory Stoneman Douglas to prevent what happened in Uvalde.
SURVIVED SCHOOL SHOOTINGS:Now their own children are in classrooms in the midst of a growing epidemic.
At the West Melbourne rally, Addisyn Mayer, 8, said she knew the protocol for hiding during a shooting before entering the primary school: “I learned to lock the door, turn off the lights and hide in a classroom. classes before learning to read. .”
He added: “What if the kids asking for change are the answer to their thoughts and prayers, and they just don’t listen to us?”
March for Our Lives co-founders David Hogg and X Gonzalez, lawmakers and other survivors of gun violence will speak in Washington. New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined protesters crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
“If our government can’t do anything to prevent 19 children from being murdered and massacred in their own school and beheaded, it’s time to change who is in government,” Hogg said.
“Enough is enough,” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser told the crowd.
Overcast, gray skies and light rain didn’t stop the thousands of people who showed up in DC with ponchos, umbrellas and raincoats, including several mass shooting survivors who traveled from across the country.
Reese Allen, a 20-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivor, traveled 14 hours from Coral Springs, Florida, with her family.
“I just wanted to be here to show my support because I was part of one myself,” Allen told USA TODAY. “I know how difficult it can be for parents, especially because they are young children.”
HOW OTHER COUNTRIES MANAGE SHOOTINGS:From Australia to the UK, here’s how other countries have responded to mass shootings
TIRAJE A UVALDE RELIVES DEBATE:Should police officers be stationed in schools?
Allen and his mother, Lisa Allen, said the Uvalde shooting, the deadliest elementary school shooting since Sandy Hook, when 20 first graders and six adults were massacred nearly a decade ago in Newtown, Connecticut, prompted them to return to March for Our Lives. .
“We remember when we first came here, the support of the Sandy Hook people from other shoots and how much it meant to us. And that’s why we really thought it was important to come here to let the people of Uvalde know about it,” said Lisa Allen.
Some of those who were students during the Parkland shooting are now young adults starting their careers. Maggy Hier, a 21-year-old native of Baltimore, hopes to one day be a school teacher. However, she is left with the fear of a mass shooting in her future classroom.
“I’ve wanted to be an educator my whole life,” Hier said. “I became an educator and now I am a teacher and I don’t want to lose my life in the classroom one day, protecting my children.”
Members of the National Education Association marched to show their support for the teachers who lost their lives in mass shootings.
Melissa Stein, a 42-year-old educator at Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland, said she came to the march out of fear for her students and children. As a mother, Stein said she is horrified at the thought of her daughters in a mass shooting, but also at the thought of experiencing one herself as a teacher.
“I’m a little tired of being sad and I’m angry. It’s wrong. Our job is to teach and protect children and we have to worry about them getting killed,” Stein said.
Stein came to the march with her 11-year-old daughter, Madeleine. As a high school student, Madeleine recalled that her class shared her life goals at the beginning of the year. She then thought of the murdered students whose lives had been cut short by gun violence.
“Every year [at school] We told each other their hopes and dreams and I was very sad because they had a whole life to live,” he said.
The atmosphere in Parkland was angry but determined, with a crowd of about 1,500 people, many wearing blue “March for Our Lives” T-shirts, surrounding the speakers and breaking into chants calling for legislative action.
“What we don’t need are prayers and thoughts,” said Sarah Lerner, a professor of English and journalism for the past 20 years at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Two of her students were killed in the 2018 shooting. “A shooting shouldn’t have happened at my school, but it should have stopped at my school as well.”
At City Plaza in downtown Reno, Nevada, dozens chanted for change during a morning rally.
Sheena Rogers, a mother of five children ages 6 to 16, led the group: “Protect the children,” they shouted, “no guns!”
In Louisville, Kentucky, a crowd of hundreds who took to the streets of downtown were joined by elected officials who called for reforms.
Gun violence “must stop and can stop,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer told the crowd. Rep. John Yarmuth touted his “F” rating from the National Rifle Association.
Contributions: Caleb Stultz, Louisville Courier Journal; Finch Walker, Florida Today; Kristin Oh, Reno Gazette Magazine; Stephany Matat and Mike Diamond, Palm Beach Post; The Associated Press.
