AMERICA UP IN ARMS
Nearly a million rally in D.C. for gun reform
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ...That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it .
HUNDREDS OF thousands of teens congregated in the nation’s capital Saturday in a first-of-itskind student-led march against gun violence.
The March for Our Lives rally kicked off with throngs of young people crowding Pennsylvania Ave. holding signs that read “Love Over Lead” and “No More Thoughts & Prayers.”
The weeks-in-the-making demonstration — which also took place in hundreds of cities across the U.S. and around the world — was fueled by the Feb. 14. mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 students and educators were killed.
“Since this movement began, people have asked me, ‘Do you think any change is going to come from this?’ ” Cameron Kasky, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, said to the sea of teens.
“Look around. We are the change.”
A galaxy of stars joined the swarms of protesters calling on lawmakers to impose stricter gun laws — including singers Miley Cyrus and Kanye West, and actor Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson.
But the headliners of the rally were the high schoolers, fed up with Washington lawmakers for failing to tackle the nation’s culture of gun violence.
“I have learned to duck from bullets before I learned how to read,” said Los Angeles student Edna Chavez, whose brother was shot and killed in front of her.
“Enough is enough. How many more children have to die before this problem gets acknowledged?”
Similar sentiments were conveyed at the more than 800 rallies across the country — and around the world — in an extraordinary display of the momentum and power sparked by the Florida students.
The teen leaders transformed themselves into outspoken activists and instant celebrities, rallying supporters through social media and a relentless barrage of TV interviews.
“What’s really important is that everyone comes away from this feeling like, ‘I can make a difference,’ ” said Emma Gonzalez, one of the most recognizable survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas tragedy, who paused in her remarks to honor the victims with an extended and riveting moment of silence.
“We whipped something out of nothing, out of a tragedy, in less than zero time,” she said before she took the podium. “It’s hard, it’s confusing, and it’s a mess, but at the end of the day it’s worth it.”
Saturday’s demonstration focused on more than making noise. The tens of thousands of young people who streamed into Washington were met with booths, set up around town, helping the protesters register to vote.
“We’re not gonna make any change unless we go to the polls,” said one of the volunteers, Mary Akeman, 26, of Alexandria, Va. “The real march is at the polls.”
Hundreds of students and teachers poured in from New York City, including a large contingent from the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in East Harlem.
“They organized everything,” English teacher Bob McCrew, 60, said of the students.
“My generation — peace and love — didn’t get it done,” he said. “The millennials didn’t get it done. Generation X didn’t really. I’m very hopeful that these guys will sustain the effort and get America out of the realm of embarrassment.”
Britney Cruz, a 16-year-old student from Yonkers, Westchester County, traveled to the capital with roughly 70 other high schoolers.
“We should not be worrying about dying,” Cruz said. “We should be focusing on our education and planning for our future.”
As Cruz and her classmates rallied in Washington, demonstrators were marching through the streets of cities large and small — Philadelphia and Chicago, Jonesboro, Ark., and Appleton, Wis.
Young people were also rallying in cities as far away as Tokyo, Sydney and Berlin.
Demonstrators flooded the streets of Boston, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go.”
“I hope the politicians will finally do their job and protect us,” Becca Munoz, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said at the Boston rally. “And value our lives over the money of the NRA.”
In Parkland, students were handing out contracts asking parents to promise to “vote for legislative leaders who support our children’s safety over guns.”
Comedian Amy Schumer addressed the crowd in Los Angeles, blasting politicians who “take money from the NRA to uphold these laws outdated by hundreds of years.”
“How do they sleep at night?” Schumer said. “You are killing children.”
As morning turned to afternoon in Washington, the crowds continued to grow.
Teens traveled hundreds of miles to join their peers in calling on the government to tackle meaningful gun reforms.
“I’m sick of government keeping us silent while we’re trying to scream and cry for help and they’re like, ‘No, we can’t talk about that right now,’ ” said Maya Middleton, a student from Chicago.
Among the demonstrators were relatives of victims killed in other school rampages.
Matthew Soto, 19, traveled to Washington to honor his sister Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher who was killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, that claimed 26 lives.
“My sister doesn’t have a voice anymore because she was slaughtered in her classroom,” he said.
“A first-grade teacher should never have to think about a gunman coming into her class and killing her.”
John Barnitt, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas junior, said he was running on fumes after a series of sleepless nights. But he vowed to keep fighting to end the gun scourge.
“Three-fourths of this nation want a difference, and it’s insane that right in that building over there, in the Capitol, that no one’s making a difference right now,” he said. “So we’re here, and we’re going to make a difference ourselves.”