Thousands of people in the US, the capital Washington and various cities, took to the streets demanding the toughening of gun control measures after the armed attacks in which many deaths occurred in the recent period. Protesters called on Congress to take action.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, in his speech at the “March for Our Lives” action held for the second time in the capital, said, “Enough is enough. I speak as a mayor and as a mother, I speak on behalf of the millions of Americans and mayors of America who want Congress to do its job. The duty of Congress is to protect us and our children from gun violence,” she said.
Speakers at the demonstration in Washington, one after the other, called out to senators who blocked the implementation of gun control laws, “take action or face losing your seat”.
David Hogg, who survived the shooting that killed 17 students in a high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018, referring to the attack on an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on May 31 that killed 19 children and two teachers, said, “If our government does not allow 19 children to be in their schools, “If he can’t do anything to stop him being killed and massacred, then it’s time to change the government,” he said. Hogg is also the co-founder of the March for Our Lives group, which was formed after the attack and organized the first action in Washington.
Hogg and the demonstrators then chanted slogans calling for non-votes to politicians who did not take action.
Debra Hixon, who lost her husband, the sports director of the school, in the protest in which hundreds of people attended in Parkland in 2018, said that it was “very easy” for young people to enter stores and buy guns. Hixon, who is currently a member of the school’s board of directors, said that seeing the empty bed in their room and the empty chair at the dinner table constantly reminded him of the absence of his wife, adding, “We had not yet completed creating memories, sharing our dreams, and living a life together. Gun violence has taken all this away from my family,” he said.
President Joe Biden, who was in California at the time the demonstrations began, also called on the protesters to “go on the march” and expressed “moderate optimism” regarding the negotiations in Congress to take legal action against gun violence.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, who campaigned with the promise of ending gun violence in the city, and state Attorney General Letitia James, who filed a lawsuit against the National Gun Association (NRA), also participated in the action held in Brooklyn, New York. Adams and James led the activists in the march to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Unless the youth, not the politicians, stand up, nothing will happen in this country,” James said.
Despite the rain in the capital, thousands of people came to the place where the monuments were before the demonstration started. In the show, “Children cannot be replaced, but senators are. Banners were unfurled saying “vote”. A middle school student also carried a banner that read, “I want to feel safe at school.”
It is stated that demonstrations were held at around 300 points across the USA.
The House of Representatives has passed bills that contain some regulations, including raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21, but such initiatives have generally been clogged or softened in the Senate to date. Democratic and Republican senators were committed to reaching a framework agreement on the matter this week, but no consensus has yet been announced.