March for Our Lives protesters demanded action against guns violence & More News Here

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FORT WORTH — Standing exterior of the Tarrant County Courthouse on Saturday in 100-degree warmth, a pair of moms in contrast notes on whether or not so as to add a brand new merchandise to their youngsters’s college provide lists subsequent 12 months: bulletproof backpacks.

Elizabeth Brown, a veterinarian, mentioned she began purchasing on-line for such backpacks for her three youngsters, ages 4, 10 and 12. She noticed one which price $200 every. Jamie Martin, a highschool chemistry instructor, mentioned she noticed one for $150 that she thought of for her 8-year-old daughter.

Both moms doubted whether or not the backpacks may stand as much as a spherical from an AR-15 — the weapon utilized by the gunman who killed 19 college students and two educators at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24. They mentioned they had been exasperated by the considered having to equip their youngsters to outlive an encounter with a gunman within the halls of their college — and despaired that 23 years after the Columbine High School bloodbath, college shootings and active-shooter drills have develop into routine.

They had been amongst tens of 1000’s of protesters who marched on the Mall in Washington and in cities throughout the United States and Texas in a nationwide demonstration convened by March for Our Lives, the political motion created after a gunman killed 17 folks at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018. Saturday’s protests had been a sequel to demonstrations held on March 24, 2018.

Along with Fort Worth, demonstrations had been held in Texas’ largest cities — Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and El Paso — and in Amarillo, Longview, Lubbock, Pharr, Rockwall, Wichita Falls and The Woodlands.

In Fort Worth, Barbara Gerke, a 58-year-old gun proprietor, held a cardboard signal that referred to as for elevating the age restrict for assault-rifle purchases, increasing background checks and instituting a ready interval for the acquisition of firearms.

“Nobody’s saying banish all guns,” she mentioned. “Nobody’s asking for that. We’re asking for common-sense, actual legislation, laws on the books that will do something.”

Brown, the veterinarian, needs to see the state enact “red flag” legal guidelines — which might permit a courtroom to confiscate firearms from those that seem like a hazard to themselves or others. The concept of arming and coaching academics to confront shooters baffled Martin, the highschool instructor, who held an indication exterior of the courthouse that learn “NO MORE.”

“I’m just a science nerd,” Martin mentioned. “I’m not a military officer.”

After the Uvalde capturing, Brown and her husband thought of holding their youngsters dwelling from college over the past week of the 12 months — however it didn’t really feel truthful to go away them out of enjoyable end-of-year actions. Brown famous that shootings have occurred at day care facilities, church buildings and grocery shops, so nowhere feels secure.

Days after the Uvalde bloodbath, Brown attended her daughter’s fourth grade commencement. “I was crying because those kids should have been doing that,” Brown mentioned. “I shouldn’t have to fear sending my kids to school. I shouldn’t have to think that they’re not going to come home after I just dropped them off on the way to work every morning.”

There had been counter-protesters in Fort Worth, too: Some gun rights advocates waved Don’t Tread on Me flags and argued with gun safety proponents.

In Austin, protesters marched on the Capitol, making an attempt to sway a Legislature that has repeatedly loosened gun legal guidelines over the previous decade. A relative of two cousins killed in Uvalde — Jackie Cazares, 9, and Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10 — advised supporters of gun security laws about their grief and anger.

“While I was fearing for my own life, I didn’t know that my sister had lost hers,” mentioned Jackie’s older sister Jazmin, 17, referring to a school-district-wide lockdown that was imposed amid the chaos at Robb Elementary. “I am unbelievably angry, but I’m not going to turn my anger into hate. I’m going to channel that anger, and I’m going to create some real change.”

Jazmin mentioned she and her sister had hoped to spend the weekend after the bloodbath training to audition for a summer time arts academy. She mentioned of the gunman: “That 18-year-old guy, you’ll never catch me saying his name. He doesn’t deserve to be remembered. Jackie does. I walked past him in the halls, probably waved at him. And he took her from me. He took her friends, my cousins.”

Protests had been additionally held in cities throughout the nation, together with Atlanta; Boston; Brooklyn, New York; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago; Cincinnati; Detroit; Los Angeles; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis; Nashville; Orlando; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; San Francisco; St. Louis; and Salt Lake City. There had been additionally protests at statehouses in Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.

David Hogg, who helped arrange the March for Our Lives motion after surviving the Parkland capturing, advised the gang in Washington that some 200,000 folks have died of gun violence within the United States since then.

“All Americans have a right to not be shot, a right to safety,” he mentioned. “Nowhere, nowhere in the Constitution is unrestricted access to weapons of war a guaranteed right. We’ve seen the damage that AR-15’s do, when we look at the innocent children of Uvalde. Tiny coffins filled with small mutilated and decapitated bodies. That should fill us with rage and demands for change — not endless debate but demands for change, now.”

He continued: “If our government can’t do anything to stop 19 kids from being killed and slaughtered in their own school, and decapitated, it’s time to change who is in government. As we gather here today, the next shooter is already plotting his attack, while the federal government pretends it can do nothing to stop it. Since the shooting in Texas, the Senate has done only one thing: they have gone on recess.”

Already this 12 months, America has skilled greater than 250 mass shootings, in response to the Gun Violence Archive, together with 34 since Uvalde.

This week, the U.S. House handed laws to boost the minimal age to buy a semi-automatic rifle to 21, ban high-capacity magazines, and permit courts to confiscate weapons from these deemed to be a hazard to themselves or others — also called a red-flag legislation. Such sweeping messages stand no probability of getting help from the 60 senators wanted to beat a filibuster. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, with Chris Murphy of Connecticut representing the Democrats and John Cornyn of Texas representing the Republicans, are discussing extra modest proposals, together with a red-flag legislation.

At the rally, Hogg mentioned he supported any measure that would scale back the toll of demise, and pointed to legislative successes since 2018, together with background checks in Virginia and a 3-day ready interval for gun purchases and elevating the minimal age for gun possession in Florida. He additionally mentioned that extra Republicans and independents, and accountable gun homeowners, had been becoming a member of the motion for gun security. “This is not a political issue, this is a moral issue,” he mentioned, calling for larger spending on psychological well being.

Speaking of Uvalde, Hogg criticized the concept “more good guys with guns” are the reply, nothing that “19 good guys with guns, heavily armored and trained,” assembled exterior the school rooms the place the Uvalde gunman holed up and failed to save lots of the victims. “First responders need to be the last resort, and not the first, to saving our kids from gun violence, because the reality is, putting more cops in schools hasn’t worked, and it won’t,” he mentioned. “We need to stop these shooters before they get on campus.”

Hogg mentioned the motion was neither pro-gun nor anti-gun, however pro-peace. “Assault rifles are designed for only one purpose, to be a killing machine,” he mentioned. “Our enemy is not the left or right, our common enemy is gun violence.”

In a tweet on Saturday morning, President Biden famous that younger Americans had been as soon as once more marching “to call on Congress to pass commonsense gun safety legislation supported by the majority of Americans and gun owners,” and added: “I join them by repeating my call to Congress: do something.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has 65,000 members in Texas, advised the gang in Washington: “Schools should be places of hope, not fear. Schools should be safe sanctuaries, not fortresses. This is our fight, our fight for a welcoming and safe environment where everyone feels welcome and safe.”

She added: “We’re facing a uniquely American epidemic, a toxic brew of guns and hate that is taking the lives of over 100 people every day.” Emphasizing that many accountable gun homeowners had been a part of the motion for gun security, she mentioned: “The bottom line is, we’ve got to get guns out of the hands of people who should not have them, and we’ve got to get weapons of war off our streets.”

Weingarten implicitly took on debates in Texas, the place some conservative policymakers have referred to as for hardening faculties and arming academics — whereas additionally passing laws to restrict how race and sexuality will be taught in lecture rooms or studied at school libraries. “Teachers want to be teaching, they do not want to holster firearms,” Weingarten mentioned. “We need fewer guns in schools, not more of them. And as we head back to school this fall, please arm us with resources, with books, with school counselors, not with bulletproof vests. Ironically, the same folks who say we should carry a gun in a classroom are the ones saying they don’t trust us to pick the appropriate books and curriculum for our nation’s kids. I ask our politicians this: If we have the judgment to shoot a bad buy, why don’t we have the judgment to plan our lessons?”

Other audio system on the occasion in Washington included Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in Parkland; Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son was killed in Parkland; and Garnell Whitfield Jr., whose 86-year-old mom was killed May 14 at a grocery store in Buffalo together with 9 different folks. Also addressing the gang had been one other Parkland survivor, X González; Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, who mentioned she had an abusive accomplice as soon as fired a gun at her; Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington; and Yolanda King, a granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr.

In San Antonio, demonstrators marched from Milam Park to City Hall, chanting, “No More Silence—End Gun Violence” and “Hey hey ho ho — Greg Abbott has got to go,” referring to the Republican governor, who has resisted calls for a particular legislative session to deal with gun violence.

Some protesters made clear that they supported the 2nd Amendment however didn’t think about gun rights to be absolute. One San Antonio protester held an indication saying, “WE ARE PRO 2nd Amendment, PRO background checks, PRO red flag laws, PRO waiting periods, PRO LIFE.”

In Dallas, protesters marched from Dealey Plaza to City Hall, some denouncing the National Rifle Association. Others chanted, “Two, four, six, eight. We need action, not debate.”

In Houston, a younger protester recited the names of the Uvalde victims, and led the gang in chanting, “We demand change.” A Harris County commissioner, Rodney Ellis, praised those that had turned out: “My simple messages to you is: Don’t give up. You’ve come too far. You’ve fought too hard. And just keep going.” State Representative Ann Johnson, a Democrat, recalled the intimidation she confronted from gun homeowners when she fought against Texas’ permitless carry legislation, which went into impact final 12 months. “DNA is more important than the NRA, and it’s our job to let them know that human life is more important than rifle life,” said State Representative Penny Shaw, one other Democrat.

Al Green, a 74-year-old Democratic congressman from Houston, told the youthful crowd: “My generation has not done what it should have done to keep guns out of the hands of violent perpetrators. Your time has come. And to those who say 18-year-olds ought to be able to buy weapons of war, here’s what I say: Tell that to the ghosts of the persons who died shopping at the Tops Food Market [in Buffalo]. Explain that to the spirit of the people who have their children that have lost their lives at the school in Uvalde. Explain it, if you will, please, to those whose hearts have been broken because the guns have massacred and killed their kids. It’s time to take the guns out of the hands of 18-year-olds.”

The Houston demonstrators later marched from City Hall to the downtown workplace of Texas’ different senator, Ted Cruz, denouncing him. Cruz, a Republican, has rejected new gun restrictions, arguing that faculties ought to have extra armed officers and that the variety of entrances to colleges ought to be restricted to make it more durable for intruders to enter.

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