WASHINGTON, D.C. – Organizers and activists with March Fourth, a group that was founded following the Highland Park, Illinois Fourth of July parade shooting, advocated to ban assault weapons.
Marching towards our nation’s Capitol building, activists with the group March Fourth, make it clear what they’re pushing for:
“Assault weapons have to go,” chanted the group.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, an organization that tracks gun violence incidents, there has been 163 mass shootings so far this year.
“My entire life has been affected by this,” said activist Ella Dewars. “My whole school career has included lockdown drills. It’s hard for a five-year-old to understand if its real or if it’s just a drill and I’m now in law school and it’s still and issue and it shouldn’t be that way and its devastating.”
Following the Uvalde, Texas school shooting and the Buffalo grocery store shooting, congress passed gun control legislation. That legislation did not include a ban on assault-style weapons. Activists hope congress takes up that issue.
“I was a teacher before I was a law student and I think its horrific that every day I walked into my classroom I was scared that there was gonna be somebody who tried to come in and hurt my kids,” said activist Kate Redetcke.
“When our students have to be identified by DNA that there’s nothing left recognizable because these weapons of war are sold on the streets or in Walmart to people who should not have weapons due to [lack of] background checks,” said activist Bonnie Adams.
Adams is a former teacher. She said she use to work in a school district where a six-year-old shot his teacher and knows people who worked at Virginia Tech during that shooting years ago. She wants the gun violence to end.
“I’m tired of this,” said Adams. “Do something!”
Congressional republicans have made it known they do not support an assault weapons ban. It’s unlikely that kind of legislation would pass in both chambers.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article named the organization March For Our Lives as the event organizer.
