WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Washington and hundreds of rallies in the United States on Saturday to urge lawmakers to pass legislation to curb gun violence after a massacre at a Texas primary school last month. .
In the nation’s capital, the organizers of the March for Our Lives (MFOL) estimate that 40,000 people gathered at the National Mall near the Washington Monument in the occasional light rain. The Weapons Safety Group was founded by students who survived the 2018 massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Courtney Hagerty, a 41-year-old librarian in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, is traveling to Washington with her 10-year-old daughter, Kate, and 7-year-old son, Graham.
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Hagarty said the school shooting in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, when a gunman killed 26 people, mostly six- and seven-year-olds, came one day after her daughter’s first birthday.
“It left me raw,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s going to be 11, and we’re still doing it.
Kay Klein, a 65-year-old Fairfax, Virginia teacher trainer who retired earlier this month, said Americans should vote for politicians who refuse to take action in the midterm elections in November, when control of Congress will be set on a map.
“If we really care about children and families, we need to vote,” she said.
“ABSOLUTELY ABSURD”
A gunman in Uwalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 10 days after another gunman killed 10 blacks at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in a racist attack.
The shooting added new urgency to the country’s ongoing debate on gun violence, although prospects for federal legislation remain uncertain, given Republicans’ staunch opposition to any restrictions on firearms.
A woman screams while holding a placard during the “March for Our Lives” Rally Control Rally in Parkland, Florida, USA, June 11, 2022. REUTERS / Marco Bello
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In recent weeks, a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has pledged to reach an agreement, although they have not yet reached an agreement. Their efforts are focused on relatively modest changes, such as encouraging states to pass “red flag” laws that allow authorities to keep weapons from those considered dangerous.
U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat who earlier this month called on Congress to ban assault weapons, expand inspections and implement other measures, said he supported Saturday’s protests. Read more
“They’re killing us,” said X Gonzalez, a Parkland survivor and co-founder of MFOL, in an emotional speech with survivors of other mass shootings. “You, Congress, have done nothing to prevent it.”
Among other policies, MFOL called for a ban on assault weapons, universal checks for those trying to purchase weapons and a national licensing system to register gun owners.
Biden told reporters in Los Angeles that he had spoken several times with Senator Chris Murphy, who is leading the Senate talks, and that negotiators remain “slightly optimistic.”
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a wide range of gun security measures, but legislation has no chance to be moved to the Senate, where Republicans view gun restrictions as a violation of the right to bear arms in the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. USA.
Speakers at the rally in Washington included David Hogg, a Parkland survivor and co-founder of MFOL; Becky Pringle and Randy Weingarten, presidents of the two largest teachers’ unions in the United States; and Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, DC
Two high school students from the Washington suburbs of Silver Spring, Maryland – Xena Philip, 16 and Blaine Sirac, 15 – said they had never joined a protest before, but felt motivated after the shooting in Texas.
“Just knowing that there is a possibility that this could happen in my own school terrifies me,” said Philip. “Many children are numb to the point that they feel hopeless.
Sirak said he supported more gun restrictions and that the problem extended beyond mass shootings to daily victims of gun violence.
“People can get military weapons in America,” she said. – This is absolutely absurd.
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Report by Ted Hesson; Additional reports from Trevor Hunnicutt in Los Angeles and Makini Brice in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax; Edited by Aurora Ellis and Daniel Wallis
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