US: Thousands to rally against gun violence

The organisers aim to spur political leaders into action

Image: Stephanie and Michael Chavez of San Antonio pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School, the site of a mass shooting, in Uvalde, Texas /REUTERS

Published: Sat 11 Jun 2022, 3:58 PM

Last updated: Sat 11 Jun 2022, 4:02 PM

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to rally in Washington, DC, and across the US on Saturday, calling on lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at curbing gun violence following last month's massacre at a Texas elementary school.

March for Our Lives (MFOL), the gun safety group founded by student survivors of the 2018 massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school, said it has planned more than 450 rallies for Saturday, including events in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

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The organization's 2018 march on Washington, weeks after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, brought hundreds of thousands of people to the nation's capital.

According to organizers, this year's event is meant to send the following message to political leaders - that their inaction is killing Americans.

"We will no longer allow you to sit back while people continue to die," Trevon Bosley, an MFOL board member, said in an emailed statement.

A gunman in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 10 days after another gunman murdered 10 Black people in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in a racist attack.

The latest mass shootings have added new urgency to the country's ongoing debate over gun violence, though the prospects for federal legislation remain uncertain.

Among other policies, MFOL has called for an assault weapons ban, universal background checks for those trying to purchase guns and a national licensing system, which would register gun owners.

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