‘DYING’ WORDS
N.Y.ers join Calif. shoot survivors in protest
Residents of grieving Thousand Oaks, Calif., joined New Yorkers on Sunday to recreate the aftermath of last week’s mass shooting by lying motionless in Times Square in a “die-in” to protest gun violence.
“This is what people in Parkland had to walk through. This is what people in Thousand Oaks had to walk through,” a Gays Against Guns organizer chanted as 50 protesters lay under a rainbow flag on Broadway near W. 43rd St.
Another 50 protesters gathered around the stretched-out participants, chanting “thoughts and prayers are not enough, gun control now.”
The references were to last Wednesday’s massacre at Borderline Bar & Grill in California, where a dozen people were shot dead by a deranged gunman, and the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 students and staff members dead. Gays Against Guns gathers every time there’s a mass shooting with ten or more casualties.
“It keeps ramping up,” said Jay W. Walker, 51, an organizer for the group. “It’s a constant thing. “We’re at a point where out of the 312 days of the year, we’re now at 304 mass shootings.”
The Gays Against Guns protest was slated for Thursday, but postponed when 1,000 marchers took to Times Square in an unrelated demonstration to voice support for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the President to move forward despite the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sunday’s rally eventually made its way to the Red Steps at W. 47th St. where demonstrators — including five Thousand Oaks shooting survivors — spoke to the growing crowd.
One of those voices belonged to Quinn Martin, 19, who said her friend, Noel Sparks, died the shooting.
“Our community is so small — it’s big, but it feels so small. Everyone says it’s the third-safest city in America,” she said. “It’s never your town until it is.”
Kylie Vincent, 18, echoed those sentiments.
“I know a lot of people back home — they say they can’t believe this happened to our town. But you never realize it until it happens to you,” he said.
All Kristen Wisnecki can think about is the aftermath of the senseless killings.
“I found it so numbing... it’s a pain that I’ve never experienced before,” she said. “All I can keep thinking of is going back into that room and seeing countless bodies on the floor, lifeless. I can’t fathom how those families who were waiting to hear the death sentence of their child must have felt.”