WASHINGTON –
Thousands rally at National Mall and U.S. on Saturday in a new push for gun control measures following recent deadly shootings from Uvalde, Texas to Buffalo, New York, activists say which should compel Congress to act.
“That’s enough,” Columbia District Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the second March for Our Lives rally in her hometown. “I speak as mayor, a mother, and I speak for millions of Americans and mayors in the United States who are demanding that Congress do its job. And its job is to protect us, to protect our children from armed violence.” .
A spokesman for Washington called on senators, who are seen as a major impediment to legislation, to act or face being voted out of office, especially given the shock to the nation’s conscience afterwards. that 19 children and two teachers were murdered on May 24 at Robb Elementary. School in Uvalde.
“If our government can’t do anything to prevent 19 children from being killed and massacred in their own school, and beheaded, it’s time to change who’s in government,” said David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 shooting. kill 17 students. and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
A co-founder of the March For Our Lives organization that was formed after the shooting and held its first demonstration in Washington shortly after, Hogg led the crowd with “Vote them out” chants.
Another Parkland survivor and co-founder of the group, X Gonzalez, made a passionate and blasphemous request to Congress for change. “We are being murdered,” he shouted, begging Congress to “act with your age, not the size of your shoe.”
Yolanda King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., added: “This time it’s different because it’s not about politics. It’s about morality. This means courage and action. “
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was killed in the Parkland shooting, called on students “to avoid going back to school until our elected leaders stop avoiding the crisis of armed violence in America and start taking action to save our lives. “
Hundreds gathered in a Parkland amphitheater, where Debra Hixon, whose husband, athletic director Chris Hixon, died in the shooting, said it was “too easy” for young people to enter the shooting range. shops and buy weapons.
“Going home with an empty bed and an empty seat at the table is a constant reminder that it’s gone,” said Hixon, who is now a board member. “We hadn’t finished remembering, sharing dreams and living together. Armed violence tore this from my family.”
President Joe Biden, who was in California when the rally in Washington began, said his message to protesters was to “keep marching” and added that he was “slightly optimistic” about legislative negotiations to address armed violence. Biden recently delivered a passionate speech to the nation in which he called for several steps, including raising the age limit for buying assault-style weapons.
In the Brooklyn district of New York, Mayor Eric Adams, who campaigned to curb violence in the country’s largest city, has joined Attorney General Letitia James, who is suing the National Rifle Association, in the main activists on a march to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Nothing happens in this country until young people get up, not politicians,” James said.
Hundreds of people joined the call for change and gathered in a park in front of the Portland, Maine courthouse before marching through the Old Port and gathering outside of City Hall. At one point, they chanted, “Hey, hey, hey, NRA, how many kids have to die today.”
John Wuesthoff, a retired Portland lawyer, said he was waving an American flag during the rally as a reminder that gun control “is not anti-American.”
“It’s very American to have reasonable regulations to save our children’s lives,” he said.
The passion for the subject became clear in Washington when a young man jumped the barricade and tried to rush the stage before being intercepted by security. The incident caused a brief panic as people began to disperse.
Organizers expected the second March for Our Lives rally to draw up to 50,000 people to the Washington Monument, though the crowd seemed closer to 30,000. The 2018 event drew more than 200,000 people, but this time it focused on smaller marches at an estimated 300 places.
The youth-led movement created after the Parkland shooting successfully pressured the Republican-dominated state government of Florida to enact radical changes in gun control. The group did not agree with this at the national level, but has persisted in defending arms restrictions ever since, as well as participating in voter registration actions.
Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of armed violence have pressured lawmakers and testified on Capitol Hill this week. Among them was Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old girl who survived the Robb Elementary shooting. He described to lawmakers how he covered himself with the blood of a dead classmate to avoid being shot.
The House has passed bills to raise the age limit for buying semi-automatic weapons and establishing “red flag” federal laws. A bipartisan group of senators hoped to reach an agreement this week on a framework to address the issue and held talks on Friday, but no agreement was announced.
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York, David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Chris Megerian in Los Angeles contributed to this report.