March for Our Lives returns to DC to rally for gun control

WASHINGTON - Leaders of March for Our Lives, the organization founded by student survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., are expecting thousands of people to rally once again in the nation's capital Saturday in support of ending gun violence.

They say this time will be different, without the celebrity fanfare accompanying the demonstration four years ago. In turning their pain into a passion for advocacy and action, leaders and supporters are aiming to persuade Congress to pass legislation that protects future generations from gun violence.

The call for action on gun restrictions comes after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers May 24 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. In Buffalo, N.Y., a gunman killed 10 shoppers and employees - all of whom were Black - May 14 in a grocery store.

"We're putting our foot down, and we're saying we had enough of it. The 'solutions' of arming teachers, bulletproof doors, all that stuff: It's nonsense," Serena Rodrigues, 23, the organization's national coordinator, said of this year's D.C. rally. "It's time for lawmakers to step up or get out of the way."

The rally Saturday will begin at noon near the Washington Monument, and organizers expect upward of 50,000 people, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service. There will be hundreds of sister marches and events across the country, including in New York City, Milwaukee, Orlando and Los Angeles.

Leaders of March for Our Lives have spent the days leading up to Saturday's rally in more than 60 meetings on Capitol Hill, talking with lawmakers and their staff about the need for aggressive actions, such as universal background checks, said Elena Perez, 21, who is studying at Rutgers University at Newark.

"A lot of us would have loved to [have] enjoyed summer and gone out with our friends, but right now we're at a point where we realize us being together and us being united is so powerful and can really make change," Perez said. "This is time we are seeing real negotiations. The work is being done. At the same time, I am a little scared we won't see any change."

The House on Wednesday passed legislation that would raise the minimum age for the purchase of most semiautomatic rifles to 21 and ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, among other gun-control measures, just hours after a committee heard testimony from a young survivor of the Uvalde shooting. However, that vote is unlikely to amount to much because of Senate Republican opposition to substantial new gun restrictions.

Speakers at Saturday's protest will include March for Our Lives co-founders David Hogg and X González, who survived the Parkland massacre; the son of a victim in the recent Buffalo supermarket shooting; Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; and Yolanda King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., according to a news release.

After the Parkland shooting, in which a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members, the teenage survivors sparked a political movement to demand an end to school shootings and everyday gun violence. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the first March for Our Lives protests in D.C. and in cities across the country in 2018, students became activists and parents launched nonprofit organizations, lobbied lawmakers and ran for local school boards.

Still, since the Parkland shooting, more than 115,000 students have been exposed to gun violence on K-12 campuses during regular hours, according to a Washington Post database.

While Democrats took control of the White House, Senate and House in 2020, no federal gun-control legislation has been passed. The House passed two bills last year dealing with federal background checks, but neither has come to a vote in the Senate because of GOP opposition.

In March, survivors of the Parkland shooting and others who had lost family and friends to shootings returned to D.C. and placed more than 1,100 body bags on the National Mall to spell out "THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS," a condolence invoked after mass shootings that activists decry as hollow.

Organizers said survivors of Parkland and other mass shootings who plan to rally Saturday in D.C. hope thousands of people join them to push lawmakers to act quickly and aggressively to address gun violence.

"We're still here, we still care about this issue and we're not going to back down," said Matthew Hogenmiller, 20, who is digital manager for March for Our Lives and a student at Arizona State University. "I want to be the generation that ends this ... because I want no one else to have to go through it."