March for Our Lives demonstrators demand stronger gun laws to protect people, children

FLAGLER BEACH — About 60 people gathered along State Road 100 outside Wadsworth Park Saturday morning holding signs calling for more gun regulations as part of the nationwide March for Our Lives rallies.

Demonstrators lined up along the west side of the State 100 bridge and waved at passing cars with signs that read “Books Not Bullets," “Protect People Not Guns” and “Republicans Love Guns More Than Children.”

Passing drivers honked their vehicles’ horns in support of the demonstrators. Some drivers also waved. But not everyone was agreeable. One person in a pickup yelled "People kill people." And a white sedan drove by with someone making a rude gesture out of the open sunroof.

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A group of March for Our Lives demonstrators marched across the bridge before returning to stand along State Road 100 at the entrance to Wadsworth Park.

One of the demonstrators was Nadine Witherspoon of Ormond Beach.

“We want to end gun violence so we are going to do what we can to let our legislators know that we are for gun safety laws that will protect our children and each other … wherever we are — grocery stores, walking in the mall, concerts, wherever,” Witherspoon said. “It’s important that we have appropriate gun safety laws.”

Tanya Dozier and her daughter, Nevaeh, 12, are visiting Witherspoon from Pennsylvania and accompanied her to the demonstration.

“Nobody wants to take away anyone’s guns. It’s just gun safety to protect our children,” said Dozier, who was holding a Biden 2020 flag.

Dozier motioned to Nevaeh, who will be in eighth grade next year.

“This is my daughter,” she said. “I would never want to send her to school and not come home and something as simple as gun safety laws would help.”

‘We’re tired of children being massacred in their schools

Sally Hirst, president of the Flagler Beach Democratic Club, said gun laws need to be tougher.

“We believe very strongly that we need to protect kids and we need to choose kids over, you know, what people perceive as a Second Amendment right, which I think has been way overextended beyond what it originally was intended,” Hirst said. “So, we are here to try to effectuate whatever change we can in gun laws, or ideally banning assault rifles.”

Hirst said politicians need to pay attention to constituents, because many people, even gun owners, are in favor of measures such as background checks and limiting the capacity of magazines.

The demonstration was part of the March for Our Lives rallies on Saturday, which took place in Washington, D.C., and 400 cities nationwide. Besides Flagler Beach, rallies took place in at least two dozen other Florida cities.

March for Our Lives 2022 in Florida: ‘Enough is enough.’ Across Florida, hundreds attend rallies calling for gun law reform

Doreen Leone, of Port Orange, organized a demonstration in her city at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Dunlawton Avenue Saturday.

"We’re tired of children being massacred in their schools and AR-15s do not belong in anybody’s hands unless you’re in a war," she said. "We’re passionate about it."

Leone was pleased with the turnout.

"I counted about 120 people," she said. "All four corners are covered."

She said she hopes the event will draw awareness to the need for stricter gun laws.

"We're hoping they'll pay attention to us," Leone said. "We're trying to make some noise. We're hoping that it will change something."

A similar March for Our Lives rally took place four years ago after a shooter killed 14 students and three other people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

29 dead in 2 recent shootings

The nationwide rallies on Saturday follow a massacre on May 24 when an 18-year-old man shot to death 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. On May 14, another 18-year-old gunman killed 10 Black shoppers and employees in what officials described as a hate crime at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

The House of Representatives last Wednesday voted to raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 to buy a semi-automatic rifle and ban the sale of high-capacity magazines, according to a USA Today story.

The bill, known as the Protecting Our Kids Act, passed the house on a largely party-line vote of 223-204. It will now go to the Senate were Republicans have enough votes to block it and it is not expected to pass, according to USA Today. A bipartisan group of senators is working on other measures focused on red-flag laws, mental health and school safety.

The rally in Flagler Beach also drew a lone-counter protester wearing a black T-shirt adorned with the outline of an AR-15. The man, who said his first name was Justin but declined to provide a last name, carried a sign that read "Ban Democrats Not Guns."

But he was greatly outnumbered by the March for Our Lives group, which included a few very young participants.

Lincoln Stallard, 7, of Washington, D.C., was visiting his cousin Addison Asay, 12, of Palm Coast. The two cousins carried a large sign that read March for Our Lives.

Lincoln said he was doing the march to stop gun violence.

Addison said she wanted to protect children from gun violence. She said she worries about active shooters in schools.

“Sometimes, yeah. When we have, like, the drills it’s kind of scary sometimes to think that that could happen in real life,” Addison said.

Kelly Rosa, a science teacher at Flagler Palm Coast High School, held up a sign that read “Books Not Bullets.”

“There’s just been too much violence happening in our country,” she said.

She said her family owns guns, but she believes that gun regulations should be tougher.

“Banning assault-style weapons – they shouldn’t be sold, they shouldn’t be available for the average consumer,” Rosa said. “They are military-grade weapons. They are not used for sport or for hunting so they are not required in the regular population.”

Staff writer Caroline Hebert contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: March for Our Lives 2022: Florida demonstrators demand gun law reform