Gun control advocates march on Gainesville, frustrated over gun violence

Following a recent surge of mass shootings in the U.S., gun control advocates took to the streets in Gainesville on Saturday demanding that politicians either help reduce gun violence or risk being ejected from office.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Bo Diddly Plaza and marched to Depot Park for a gun reform rally, where a special candlelight vigil was held in honor of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas late last month.

“Every day for the last 10 years of my life I have woken up, gotten ready and gone to school,” Ashoka Banerjee, a high school student, said. “Every single day could’ve been the day in school that I got shot dead.

Wrap Up: Listen to this weeks news and sports for May 23-27

'Vote them out': In Parkland, site of mass shooting, 1,500 call for gun law reform

'Protect kids, not guns!': March for Our Lives rallies draw thousands in DC, Florida, Nevada, across US

“Only in America do children learn to hush and play dead in schools. Our curriculum does not include climate change, but it does include how to smear yourself in blood for camouflage.”

The local demonstration was just one of hundreds set to take place around the country, including New York City, Las Vegas and Chicago. Approximately 50,000 advocates were also expected in Washington, D.C., according to a permit from the National Park Service.

The protests were organized by March for Our Lives, a nonprofit organization founded by teens after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018

Locally, Florida Forward also helped to coordinate Saturday’s gathering.

“Any lost of life is tragic…we have more people, since 2018, that have died from shootings than vets that we’ve sent off to war," Chanae Jackson, co-founder of Florida Forward, said. “And the fact that we’ve had two wars going on simultaneously and yet more people have died here on the home front, something’s wrong.”

Already this year there have been 255 mass shootings that have been reported and verified, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Last year there were 692 mass shootings nationally.

'It's just appalling'

“How can we be the only country on this earth that doesn’t prevent gun violence?” Maggie MacDonald, gun control advocate and longtime Gainesville resident, asked. "We’re not advocating to take guns; we’re advocating to regulate them just like anything else. You regulate a car, you regulate Sudafed, but nobody goes screaming to the pharmacy or the licensing office.”

When asked about solutions, many people point to a lack of action by Republicans.

“It’s just appalling to me – the carnage and the willingness of the Republicans to allow children to be slaughtered,” MacDonald said. “Under Clinton they regulated and (gun violence) went way down. The Republicans let it go and up it goes again.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis rebuked Florida Democrats this week, describing their efforts to reform state gun laws as a move that will "kneecap" the rights of Florida's law-abiding citizens.

DeSantis' rebuke came a day after Florida Democrats launched a poll, asking the GOP-led Legislature to reconvene in Tallahassee and address gun violence. Not a single Republican voted in support of the special session, and without DeSantis' blessing, chances that a GOP majority will sign on are slim. Polling closed Friday.

“The GOP in Florida is more concerned with protecting children from other LGBTQ kids and families than they are from keeping them safe from being murdered in mass violence,” Tamara Deutsh, a local resident and gun reform supporter, said. “(As opposed to guns) they want to keep ‘Heather Has Two Mommies' out of the classroom, and that’s ridiculous.”

The national scene

President Joe Biden has acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he has sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks.

His latest appeal: restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He’s also called on Congress to find middle ground to include keeping firearms from those with mental health issues and/or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21.

“How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden asked in a televised address to the nation a week after the Texas shootings and another recent attack in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a gunman shot and killed four people and himself at a medical office.

Republican law makers have often cited mental health as an issue to gun violence, but some voters just aren’t buying it.

“They say mental health, well everybody in the world has mental health problems and yet the problem is here only in the U.S,” Chris Deutsch, another gun control advocate, said.

“Only in America do we send 10-year-olds to battle fields instead of playgrounds,” Banerjee said. “Only in America.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: March for Our Lives Gainesville holds rally in support of gun control