March For Our Lives scheduled for June 11 in Louisville
The gunshots that killed 21 people in Uvalde, Texas, May 24 echoed thousands of miles away in the minds of a couple deep in the woods of south Jefferson County, Ga.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic Joshua and Ledsy Brown, a retired Army deep-sea diver and Savannah architect, packed up their lives and moved onto a secluded property near Bartow in an effort to separate themselves from society. They built an off the grid homestead and worked at becoming more self-sufficient. For the last year and a half they have developed their property, which they call Bandita Ranch, into a wildlife sanctuary with designs to care for breeds on the endangered species list, planting an organic farm and giant Sequoia trees.
Even in their quiet corner, miles from what most people would call the trappings of the modern world, the Browns were shaken by the news of the shooting deaths of 19 elementary students and two teachers.
“We can no longer sit aside, safe and hidden away from society in our paradise,” said Joshua Brown. “We can’t sit by any longer and see families destroyed and do nothing. There have been too many innocents lost.”
After hearing about the shootings at Robb Elementary School the Browns reached out to March For Our Lives, an organization created by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Fla. dedicated to the support of gun control legislation, and began planning their own local march.
“What better location than Georgia’s first capital, Louisville,” he said. “There wasn’t a march organized within 50 miles, so we filled the spot.”
The march is scheduled for Saturday, June 11, from noon until 2 p.m. It will begin at Jefferson Hospital and proceed along Peachtree Street, turning at Broad Street, and ending at the county courthouse.
The Jefferson County march is one of six marches of its type planned across the state on June 11. There are four in Atlanta, one in Augusta, one in Savannah and one in Eastman.
“We moved out to the country to get away, to have less social interaction, but we keep seeing these shootings happen. We look at each other and think, ‘Thank God we got out of that.’ Everyone doesn’t get that chance. Not everyone can do that,” he said. “We are gun owners. We believe that you should be able to take care of yourself and put food on the table. But it has gotten out of control. At what point is a human life worth less than a piece of metal?”
Ledsy said that they realized they could not sit quiet any longer and wanted to reach out to the community, to gather like-minded people together, and organize this event before something this tragic happens here.
"We want to find a middle ground," she said. "It's not about being right or left, blue or red, it's about coming together and making meaningful change."
The march is starting at the hospital, she said, because that is where shooting victims are taken and where too many parents are having to collect the bodies of their children. The Louisville march is ending at the courthouse because, she said, it is time to have the government make changes to protect people.
“We will be out front putting pressure on our politicians to enact common sense gun laws and universal background checks,” Joshua Brown said. ”We aren’t trying to take away everyone’s guns, this isn’t an anti-gun rally. It’s a rally for common sense, to make our streets a safer place, to save our children, and to save our country from the downward slope we are trending on.”
For more information or to register to participate in their march, see the Browns’ website www.banditaranch.com/events/June11
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: March For Our Lives scheduled for June 11 in Louisville
