Protesters gather in DC, demanding gun control
Teen participants take lead, tap into social momentum for change
WASHINGTON — Washington is preparing for a massive rally in support of gun control, one that organizers hope will prove that the country has reached an emotional tipping point on gun violence, with teenagers seizing the initiative and leading the demand for change.
The nation’s capital is generally nonchalant about protests, but Saturday’s gathering has prompted more attention and speculation than usual.
Estimates on crowd size are notoriously unreliable but organizers are hoping to draw 500,000 protesters; that would match last year’s women’s march and make this one of the largest Washington protests since the Vietnam era. It would also bolster claims that the nation is ready to enact sweeping changes to its gun control laws. More than 800 other concurrent marches are planned in cities across America and dozens of locations overseas.
“I look at the younger kids and the future generations and I never want them to go through what we went through or see what we saw,” said 15-year old Kayla Renert, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed on Feb. 14.
Renert, who sheltered in a classroom during the attack and had a friend wounded in the leg, was on a bus bringing her to Washington from the airport after flying up from Florida Friday morning. She pointed out that the Parkland shooting wasn’t even the most recent school shooting in the United States. One student was wounded and another later died from her wounds after being shot Tuesday in Maryland; the 17-year old gunman was also killed.
“We keep saying, ‘Oh this is going to be the last time.’ But there’s already been another time,” Renert said.
Many protesters spoke pointedly about how their parents and others of their generation had failed to bring about the changes they are demanding. They present the youth-led nature of the current movement as proof that they will succeed where their predecessors had failed.
“I’m here because previous generations couldn’t do what we’re doing right now,” said Charlie Shebes, 16, also from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, on a flight from Ft. Lauderdale. “I want to see safer schools. I want to see changes in gun laws.”
The students have tapped into a powerful current of pro-gun control sentiment that has been building for years.
Polls indicate that public opinion nationwide may indeed be shifting on an issue that has simmered for generations, and through dozens of mass shootings. A new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 69 percent of Americans think gun laws in the United States should be tightened. That’s up from 61 percent who said the same in October of 2016 and 55 percent when the AP first asked the question in October of 2013. Overall, 90 percent of Democrats, 50 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of gun owners now favor stricter gun control laws.
“To me, it feels like this is THE moment when it’s all going to change,” said Anne Tumlinson, who will be hosting about a half dozen high school demonstrators from Jacksonville in her Washington home.
But even with claims of historic social momentum for gun control, the AP poll also found that nearly half of Americans don’t expect elected officials to take action. March organizers and participants face the question of how to translate this one-day event, regardless of turnout, into meaningful legislative change.