Life, arms and votes in America.

Life, arms and votes in America.

Some one million people, mostly students, took to the streets of 800 U.S. locations last Saturday to demand greater control over access to weapons.

Author: International Editor | internacionales@granma.cu

27 March 2018 22:03:04

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Young people in the United States raised their voices this weekend against violence, under the theme March for Our Lives. Some one million people, mostly students, took to the streets of 800 towns across the country last Saturday to demand greater control over access to guns.

The mobilization follows one of the most recent school shootings, in Parkland, Florida, when in the midst of the Valentine’s Day celebrations, a 19-year-old boy killed 14 students and three teachers carrying a legally-acquired assault rifle.

The fact once again opened up the debate in a country where there are an estimated 200 to 300 million guns, almost one per capita, and where lobbyists such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) are lobbying hard in Washington to avoid any legislation that would diminish the profits from their lucrative business.

NO TO GUNS

Such was the scope of the demonstrations, that some of the older attendees remembered those of the young people decades before against the intervention of the United States in the Vietnam War.

Mary Riley, a 50-year-old filmmaker who traveled from San Francisco to Washington to support young people, said, “What made a difference in Vietnam was when the students went out on the street and now the students are the ones who were shot and they are also future voters.

In that sense, one of the survivors of the February shooting told the crowd: “We can and will change this world!».

Tired of the killings and school insecurity, young people are asking politicians for more action, not so much their “prayers and thoughts”.