Thousands march to demand action on US gun law reform

‘Protect People Not Guns,’ said one sign near the Washington Monument. ‘Fear Has No Place In Schools’, read another.

Thousands stream on to the National Mall in Washington on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the US to push for action on the devastating gun violence plaguing the country, where Republican politicians have repeatedly blocked efforts to enact stricter firearms laws.

Protesters of all ages streamed on to the National Mall in Washington on Saturday (Sunday AEST), where activists placed some 45,222 white vases holding flowers – one for each person killed by a firearm in the US in 2020.

“Protect People Not Guns,” said one sign held by a protester near the Washington Monument. “Fear Has No Place In Schools,” read another.

Two shootings last month – one at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, and another at a New York supermarket that left 10 black people dead – helped spur the rallies, organised by March For Our Lives.

The student-led organisation, founded by survivors of a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, held a rally that drew hundreds of thousands of people to the nation’s capital in March 2018. Four years later, the demonstration was marked by frustration at the lack of progress.

“Enough is enough” rang out repeatedly from the podium, with speakers including Parkland survivor X Gonzalez and Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter, Yolanda King.

Thouands stream across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday. Picture: AFP

“We are here to demand justice,” said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother was killed in the racially motivated supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York on May 14. “We are here to stand with those who are bold enough to demand sensible gun legislation.”

The problem of gun violence in the US – which has killed more than 19,300 people so far this year – goes far beyond mass killings, with more than half of those deaths due to suicide.

Outside Washington, hundreds of other demonstrations were held around the country, including in Parkland, where protesters carried signs with messages such as “Am I Next?”. Thousands turned out in New York City. In Brooklyn, white crosses were erected for the children killed in Uvalde, Texas, and portraits of those killed in Buffalo fastened to shopping carts.

Ease of access to firearms, and mental health problems that can lead to them being used in attacks, have been in the spotlight in the wake of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The massacre was carried out by a gunman who bought two assault rifles shortly after turning 18.

Gun control advocates are calling for tighter restrictions or an outright ban on such rifles. But opponents have sought to cast mass shootings as primarily a mental health issue, not a weapons problem.

Gerald Mendes, a PE teacher in Texas who joined the rally in New York, said he supports the US constitutional right to bear arms, but that “as far as AR-15s and weapons of war, we regular citizens don’t need those”.

More than 45,000 white vases holding flowers were placed along the National Mall to mark the 45,222 Americans who died from gun violence since 2020. Picture: AFP

The majority of Americans support tighter gun laws, but opposition from Republican politicians has long been a hurdle to major changes. “The will of the American people is being subverted by a minority,” said Cynthia Martins, a 63-year-old resident of the US capital.

“There’s a reason that we’re still in this situation.”

Some legislators are trying to pass gun regulations. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a broad package of proposals last week that included raising the purchasing age for most semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 – but the party does not have the requisite 60 votes to advance it in the Senate.

A bipartisan group of senators has also been working on a narrow collection of controls that could develop into the first serious attempt at gun regulation reform in decades. But it does not include an assault weapons ban or universal background checks, meaning it will fall short of the expectations of President Joe Biden.

AFP