Thousands of people took to the streets across the United States this Saturday to press for action against devastating gun violence. plaguing the country, where Republican politicians have repeatedly blocked efforts to enact tougher gun laws.
Protesters of all ages headed to the National Mall in Washington, where activists placed more than 45,000 vases, one for every person killed by a firearm in the United States during 2020.
(Also read: I covered myself with my friend’s blood: testimony of a girl who survived in Texas)
“Protect the people, not the guns,” read one of the banners near the Washington Monument. “Fear has no place in schools,” he read in another.
Two horrific shootings last month, one at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers; and another in a New York supermarket with a balance of 10 black people murdered, helped promote the demonstrations of the organization March For Our Lives (March for our lives).
The student-led collective, founded by survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, held a rally that drew hundreds of thousands of people in the capital in March 2018.
Four years later, the protest has been marked by frustration and lack of progress. The rallies, organized by the youth group “March for Our Lives,” took place in towns large and small across the US, from New York and Los Angeles to rural Iowa and Wisconsin.
The main one was that of the capital, Washington DC, which was convened next to the iconic monument to George Washington, the obelisk that stands in the center of the city a short distance from the White House and between the Capitol and the monument to Abraham Lincoln .
“Enough is enough,” was heard several times from the lectern where Parkland survivor X Gonzalez and Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter Yolanda King spoke.
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“We are here to demand justice,” said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother was killed in the racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket on May 14.
“We are here to accompany those who are brave enough to demand awareness around weapons legislation.”
Widespread outrage, little change
The problem of guns in the United States, which according to the group Gun Violence Archive has cost the lives of more than 19,300 people so far this year, is more serious than the massacres of great media coverage, with more than half of those deaths caused by suicide.
In addition to the one in Washington, hundreds of other nationwide rallies were scheduled for this Saturday, including Parklandwhere attendees carried messages like “Am I next?”
(Keep reading: The painful account of the teacher who survived a Texas school shooting)
Thousands also gathered in New York. In Brooklyn, white crosses were erected for the children killed in Uvalde and portraits of the Buffalo victims were installed in shopping carts.
Easy access to firearms and mental health conditions that can lead to their use in attacks are issues that have been in the spotlight with the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. , Texas.
The shooting was carried out by a young man who bought two assault rifles shortly after his 18th birthday.
The defenders of the regulation of weapons ask for stricter restrictions or a total prohibition to acquire rifles. However, opponents have tried to associate the mass murders as primarily a mental health issue, not a gun problem.
Gerald Mendes, a physical education teacher in Texas who joined the rally in New York, says he supports America’s constitutional right to bear arms but “ordinary citizens don’t need those AR-15s and weapons of war.” .
(You can read: Florida: two-year-old boy killed his father with an accidental shot)
Most Americans support tougher gun laws, but opposition from many congressional Republicans has made major changes elusive.
“The will of the American people is being subverted by a minority,” says Cynthia Martins, a 63-year-old Washington resident, referring to the Republican Party.
“There is a reason why we are still in this situation,” he added.
We are here to accompany those who are brave enough to demand awareness around gun legislation
Some lawmakers are trying to pass gun regulations.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a sweeping package of proposals this week that included raising the purchase age from 18 to 21 for most semi-automatic rifles. However, the party does not have the 60-vote requirement to advance in the Senate.
A cross-party group of lawmakers has also been working on a tight patchwork of controls that could become the first serious attempt at regulatory reform in decades.
However, it does not include an assault weapons ban or universal background checks, so it could fall short of President Joe Biden’s expectations.
(Keep reading: The United States seeks agreements to regulate the use of weapons)
*With information from AFP
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