Weapon lovers to stick to their guns in rallies

an Army national guardsman who served in Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2012 and 2017.

“The housing area is much calmer than other areas,” he said, noting the vets tend to be older than other inmates.

Navy vet Gabriel Laureano, 59, who served from 1978 to 1982, said he was thrilled to be in the unit.

“We understand each other more and there are fewer problems,” said Laureano, who is facing drug charges. “There’s a certain camaraderie.” GUN LOVERS will march for their rights at state capitols across the U.S. this weekend in response to a string of student-led protests against gun violence.

Organizers are encouraging participants to bring their unloaded rifles to the gatherings.

The National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans is promoting the event on its website and social media.

“Modern thinkers feel the need to strip away our natural born right to self-protection by limiting the available weapons that are at our disposal,” the coalition said in a statement on its website.

David Clayton, one of the coalition’s founders, said organizers have permits to rally outside 45 statehouses Saturday.

The rallies will be to “show our support for our Second Amendment rights and to support our Constitution as a whole.”

On March 24, hundreds of thousands of people joined the student-led March for Our Lives rally against gun violence. The movement was launched after a shooter entered a Parkland, Fla., high school with an AR-15 and killed 17 people on Feb. 14.