WASHINGTON — In a historic groundswell of youth activism, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. against gun violence Saturday, vowing to transform fear and grief into a “vote-them-out” movement and tougher laws against weapons and ammo.
They took to the streets of the nation’s capital and such cities as Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, in the kind of numbers seen during the Vietnam era, sweeping up activists long frustrated by stalemate in the gun debate and bringing in lots of new, young voices.
They were called to action by a brand-new corps of leaders: student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead Feb. 14.
“If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking,” Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from the protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from the stage near the Capitol many blocks back toward the White House. “We’re going to take this to every election, to every state and every city. We’re going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans.
“Because this,” he said, pointing behind him to the Capitol dome, “this is not cutting it.”
Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 9-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader’s most famous words in declaring from the stage: “I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period.”
By all appearances — there were no official numbers — Washington’s March for Our Lives rally rivaled the women’s march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000.
The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”
President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.
White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today.” He pointed to Trump’s efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.
Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years — yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA, its millions of supporters and lawmakers who have resisted any encroachment on gun rights.
Organizers are hoping the electricity of the crowds, their sheer numbers and the under-18 roster of speakers will create a tipping point, starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall.
To that end, chants of “Vote them out!” rang through the Washington crowd.
Emma Gonzalez, one of the first students from Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to speak out after the tragedy there, implored those of voting age to vote.
“We will continue to fight for our dead friends,” Delaney Tarr, another Parkland survivor, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students’ central demand: a ban on “weapons of war” for all but warriors.
Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns.
About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of FBI headquarters, standing quietly with signs such as “Armed Victims Live Longer” and “Stop Violating Civil Rights.” Other gun-control protests around the country were also met with small counter-demonstrations.
The president’s call to arm certain teachers fell flat at the protest, and from critics as young as Zoe Tate, 11, from Gaithersburg, Maryland.
“I think guns are dumb. It’s scary enough with the security guards we have in school,” she said.
“We don’t need teachers carrying guns now. I find it amazing that I have to explain that idea to adults.”
All Puna haolies 50s-70s. I went there to have discussions with students. But all Puna Haolies 50s-70s.
It was all about guns. Some want to rescind the 2nd Amendment. Some wish to begin now removing them from private possession. Lots of mention of “assault” weapons, equating them with fully automatic, which have been banned since 1986.
Hard to find a conversation about protection of kids in schools, which is why I thought they were out there. Oh well, another Leftist saber-rattling against the Republic.
What van are you discussing here?
It’s hard to formulate a discussion when the other party has no clue as to what they are saying.
Yep! We’re coming for your guns and we won’t stop until we “PRY THEM OUT OF YOUR COLD DEAD HANDS”. Listen up gun nuts! We ARE coming for you and your (pathetic small penis compensation) guns. We’re not stopping. WE WILL NEVER QUIT and WE ARE the FUTURE of this nation. The leaders of tomorrow who are now ACTIVATED FOR ACTION AND CHANGE. Your side has got a bunch of racist, sexist, willfully ignorant, self deluded, Trump voting rednecks and hillbillys and billionaire scumbags. We will succeed because your side is dwindling and getting OLD. We’re going to MAKE THE CHANGE WE WANT in the world, Whether YOU like it or not.
Molon Labe.
We won’t take them from you until after they’re in your rigormortise locked hands. Trust, We don’t need guns and bullets to EXTERMINATE vermin. We do it the same way we exterminate all vermin. We get the vermin themselves to “do the dirty work ” for us.
Exterminating vermin…..
Yes, let’s do get down to the nitty gritty of this movement’s agenda.
(Sound familiar?)
Molon Labe.
I see the toothless former crack head found a new website!
Not a movements agenda. My own agenda.
It ain’t going to get much better for these head up your ass republican politicians when then answer to these school shootings is to arm the kids with a bucket of river rocks or especially with shit for brains Santorum comes out and says these kids would be better off learning CPR to help their fellow students after they have been shot.
These asswipe politicians need to be totally unemployed.
I think it’s appropriate and telling that they have a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old sum up the rationality and critical thinking skills of their side with the statements “[T]his should be a gun-free world. Period.” and “I think guns are dumb.”
Till your 9 year old is shot dead.
“I think guns are dumb. It’s scary enough with the security guards we have at school.”, she said.
America’s schools are ripe and ready for a repeat of the Beslan school siege.
Banks, shopping malls, airports have armed security.
Most schools do not.
These brainwashed youths, at these Soros funded protests, are now speaking Against even trained, armed protection.
This is not going to end well.
Sure isn’t. Especially for shit for brains like you.
Yours is made from rocking horse shit. That makes u a better libtard yeah?!?!?
Not a libtard.
A liberal.
Only a head up their ass ignorant piece of useless christian conservative republican shit for brains uses the term “libtard” as an insult.
What I call you is fact.
Now, maybe vote for your candidate in Illinois who is a nazi supporter and Holocaust denier. Which your GOP did nothing to get rid of.
Sorry, but horseshit currently occupies the Oval Office.
Now, don’t you need to go alter videos of the kids who marched last Saturday to show them ripping on the constitution or start training sessions for CPR as your buddy Santorum says?
Maybe you can suck Steve King’s nut sack since you like to talk like him.
Have fun at church next Sunday!