March for Our Lives (MFOL), Marche pour nos vies en français, an organization founded by students who survived the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school massacre, had planned more than 450 rallies across the country, in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in particular, this Saturday, June 11. They echo the Uvalde massacre which claimed the lives of 19 children in a school in Texas.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Washington and other cities across the United States on Saturday to pressure Congress to toughen gun laws after the shock of the Uvalde shooting, which has claimed the lives of 19 children in Texas.
In Washington, hundreds of people began to gather on the National Mall plaza near the Washington Monument in light rain. In 2018, the march organized in Washington a few weeks after the death of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators converge on the federal capital, without leading to a revision of the rules on wearing and the purchase of firearms, systematically blocked by the Republicans.
Joe Biden takes a stand
US President Joe Biden, after urging Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures, said he supported the protests. Saturday. “Today, young people across the country are marching again with @AMarch4OurLives to call on Congress to pass common sense gun safety legislation supported by the majority of Americans and gun owners. “said the elected Democrat on Twitter.
Today, young people around the country once again march with @AMarch4OurLives to call on Congress to pass commonsense gun safety legislation supported by the majority of Americans and gun owners.
I join them by repeating my call to Congress: do something.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 11, 2022
“I join them in reiterating my call to Congress: Do something.” This Saturday, the Washington event has only one message to convey: to denounce the inaction of political leaders that is killing Americans. “We will no longer allow you to do nothing when people continue to die,” warned one of the leaders of MFOL, Trevon Bosely, in a press release.
Among other things, MFOL is calling for a ban on assault rifles, widespread background checks on gun buyers, and a national owner registration system. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed an ambitious gun control package on Wednesday, but it has no chance of being approved by the Senate where Republicans, with half of the seats, oppose any framework by invoking the second amendment to the United States Constitution which guarantees every citizen the right to possess a weapon.
After the Uvalde massacre
A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators say they are working on an agreement that will bring about much more modest changes, such as encouraging states to pass so-called “red alert” laws allowing authorities to prevent individuals considered dangerous to the society to obtain weapons. On May 24, an 18-year-old man assaulted 19 children and two female teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Ten days earlier, another young man armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed ten people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The victims were African-American and the authorities denounced a racist act.
