An anti-gun group will host protests in five cities later this month, as part of a nationwide effort to push gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
“What we are demanding from our state’s legislators should not be controversial, and will help to prevent preventable deaths in our communities,” said Carson Ferrara, a rising senior at Vanderbilt University and representative of March for Our Lives. “Last year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a law that allows anyone to carry a loaded gun in public without a permit. He signed it at a weapons manufacturing plant.”
March for Our Lives was founded by David Hogg, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where in 2018 a gunman shot and killed 17 students.
The group will march in cities and states nationwide on June 11, with the main event being hosted in Washington, D.C.
“We’re marching for our lives on June 11th in D.C. and across the nation (300 local marches and counting),” the group’s website says.
The marches in Tennessee will be held in Clarksville, Knoxville, Bristol, Memphis, Jackson, and Nashville.
The Nashville event will be held in Public Square Park.
“I’d like to invite Tennessee’s legislature to pass policies that close the background check loophole, that require anyone who wants to own a gun to take the simple, common-sense step of getting a permit, to raise the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, and to require safe gun storage from gun owners,” he said. “I’d also like to invite Governor Lee to sign those policies in a Tennessee classroom, if he truly does care about our students and keeping them safe.”
Ferrara also claims that mental health issues are not to blame for gun violence in America, but rather a lack of “common-sense gun safety laws.”
March for Our Lives has several lobbying initiatives, including ending the filibuster in order to make it easier for legislators to ram through gun control and other left-wing wish-list laws.
“Health care. Climate. Fair wages. LGBTQ+ rights. Racial justice. Gun violence prevention. Voting rights,” says the group’s website. “Again and again, senators use the filibuster to play political games with our lives, blocking life-saving measures from earning a vote on the Senate floor, and many others from even becoming legislation.”
It also supports universal background checks.
“Despite their promises, leaders in Congress haven’t even passed the most basic common sense laws to save lives, like requiring background checks for every firearm sale, a measure supported by over 90 percent of Americans. We’re calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to stop talking and start acting.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Gun Protest” by March for Our Lives.Â
