Marching for change
Yumans join nat’l movement to combat gun violence in U.S.
Local children, teens and adults alike gathered together on Saturday morning in support of the March For Our Lives national campaign that aims to address gun violence in the United States.
The event was presented by Our Revolution Yuma and Yuma County Indivisible. Jason Irr, a local high school student who is also the secretary of Our Revolution Yuma, addressed the crowd at the start of the event with questions concerning gun reform:
“Are you guys ready to change the world? Are you guys ready for universal background checks? Longer waiting periods? Raising the age to 21 to buy any firearm? Are you ready to require gun owners to go through a course and register each year to make sure they use their guns more safely? How about ending manufacturing of assault rifles? Are you ready to hold your corrupt leaders accountable so we can get these
meaningful reforms?”
Various community members, students, and educators as well as a group from San Luis were in attendance for a gathering of roughly over 100. Yuma Democrats Sen. Lisa Otondo and Rep. Charlene Fernandez were also present and gave speeches.
Fernandez stressed the importance of calling legislators on gun reform.
“Nothing will happen without your voice being heard,” she said at the start of the event. “Now, I sat at the same table with (Governor) Doug Ducey as he asked us what we wanted to see in meaningful gun reform and safety in our schools. We, our leadership — the democratic leadership — (said) number one, background checks. When Doug Ducey came back with his plan guess what was not on the table?”
The audience responded to Fernandez’s question with “background checks,” to which she nodded. Fernandez noted that she felt universal background checks, in particular, were needed for safety.
Attendees of the rally met at Marcus Park and marched to Yuma’s City Hall. The sibling march was held in solidarity of the national campaign held in the wake of school shootings across the nation.
According to the March For Our Lives website, some of the goals of the movement include providing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with dedicated funding to research gun violence as a public health issue, eliminating “absurd” restrictions on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (ATF) regarding regulating the gun industry, requiring universal background checks, implementing a ban on high-capacity magazine (magazines that hold more than ten rounds) and limiting firing power on the streets.
“The mission and focus of March For Our Lives is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues,” the March Four Lives Mission Statement reads.
Throughout the march in Yuma, chants of “enough is enough” could be heard as participants made their way to City Hall.
During his speech, Irr, a Gila Ridge High School student, noted that he is a son of a teacher, the grandson of teachers, principles and a school superintendent before citing some statistics on gun violence in the United States.
Every Town for Gun Safety, the American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and is against gun violence, shows on its webpage that over 2,700 children and teens are shot and killed and over 14,000 more are shot and injured every year.
Before the march, Irr said that he and many of his friends had “felt unsafe” in particular at school.
“I’d like to highlight today that the United States has plummeted to an absolutely grotesque place,” he said. “When a child, a teenager, a student or a teacher walks into a school they should feel safe but at this point in history students fear that whenever they walk into school, bullets will rip into their skin and take their lives,” he said.
The fear, he continued, “became too close for comfort” recently, referencing an apparent threat to Gila Ridge High School. Earlier this year, a report from the Yuma Sun showed an apparent threat was spread on social media, but an investigation revealed there was no threat to the school, though posts spread online regarding a possible threat.
“The word spread through the school like wildfire that there was something planned,” Irr said. “Together we called our school, we called our police station and thank God that our police jumped into action to prevent anything from happening.
“Now, but whenever we got back to school we didn’t feel safe,” he added. “We didn’t know if we would end up as the victims of the next mass shooting. Luckily, our fears that day didn’t come to fruition, but brothers and sisters, for many of the people this isn’t a fear — it’s a reality.”
Organizers of the event also urged the young participants to register to vote as they would soon be coming of age. Cries of “remember in November” came as participants called for support of candidates who advocate for bans on assault-style weapons and universal background checks.
“To the students that are here today, I beg you please register to vote,” Otondo said, noting that she was speaking as a former public school teacher. “Your generation will change what my generation has refused.”