Mass shootings and gun violence are happening way too often

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Here's for the marchers: 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The WaPo has a live blog of the DC march and info from some of the others going on.

The crowds are amazing. And, of course, there is a large counter-protest at Dumpy's hotel in DC.

[candygirl200413]

I hope everyone had a great time that were able to go to the March. The pictures were just truly amazing and reading/hearing some of the speeches I was just in awe.

I also am really pushing for my part of PA (philly-area) to secede from the rest of the state because of this:

 

[SilverBeach]

Watching on CNN and it is awesome. So encouraging, the passion of youth untarnished by hidden agendas and self-interest. I can't imagine having a teen or being a teen now, having to fear for your life at school. Gun control must happen, gun proliferation must end.

[AnywhereButHere]

A few of my favorite signs from the NYC march (beware - a couple are nausea inducing!). The last two were the ones we carried. It can be nice being married to a graphic designer!

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Destiny]

I couldn’t go for work reasons, but I’m there in spirit. I am so proud of the Parkland kids for being the ones to finally say enough is enough.

... and a little child shall lead them all.

[GreyhoundFan]

Fuck you, NRA: "NRA host taunts Parkland teens: ‘No one would know your names’ if classmates were still alive"

Spoiler

As they’ve stepped out of the hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and into the national spotlight, the Parkland, Fla., teenagers have become Twitter influencers, TV news show mainstays and the stoic-faced subjects of a Time magazine cover.

But they’ve also increasingly become targets: Their most prominent critics are people who see them less as survivors of a tragedy and more as pawns in a larger effort to influence gun policy.

The latest attack came from Colion Noir, a host on NRATV who took to the airwaves on the eve of the Parkland teens-led March on Washington, telling them: “No one would know your names” if a student gunman hadn’t stormed into their school and killed three staff members and 14 students.

“To all the kids from Parkland getting ready to use your First Amendment to attack everyone else’s Second Amendment at your march on Saturday, I wish a hero like Blaine Gaskill had been at Marjory Douglas High School last month because your classmates would still be alive and no one would know your names, because the media would have completely and utterly ignored your story, the way they ignored his,” Noir said.

Colion Noir is a pseudonym for Collins Iyare Idehen Jr., a lawyer and gun rights activist from Houston who has nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube. The man he references, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Deputy Blaine Gaskill, is the 34-year-old SWAT-trained officer who engaged a teenager who opened fire at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland. Noir and others have said Gaskill’s intervention illustrates that the solution to school gun violence is more “good guys with guns.”

Noir did not return messages from The Washington Post seeking comment.

Noir is the latest of a growing number of people who’ve criticized the teens. An aide to a Florida legislator was fired after he called the school shooting survivors crisis actors who travel from tragic place to tragic place making impassioned but bogus political pleas to take away gun rights. Donald Trump Jr. liked a tweet saying one of the most vocal students had been coached by his FBI-agent father to peddle “anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation.”

And several people have criticized the teens for smiling on the set of CBS’s morning news show, saying the students were “posing for the photos like they are partying rock stars.”

But Noir accuses the teens of being downright un-American in creating a march he says is designed to promote stripping others of their Second Amendment rights.

“They’re running Season 5 of their gun-control reality show, featuring the freshest cast of characters yet in their modern march on Washington — except this time for less freedom,” he said. “These kids ought to be marching against their own hypocritical belief structure.”

In the video, he also inaccurately claims that American media has ignored Gaskill’s hero story, and other stories that run counter to the gun-control narrative.

Gaskill’s story has been featured on several mainstream media outlets. CNN called it “an example of what a school resource officer is supposed to do in such a circumstance.” The New York Post ran a story with the headline “This is the officer who stopped the Maryland school shooter.”

As The Post’s Steve Hendrix and Theresa Vargas reported:

In any case, Gaskill’s rapid response was hailed for short-circuiting the attack before it became another school massacre. St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron said there was “no question” that the officer’s quick arrival at the scene and immediate engagement with the shooter had prevented more injuries. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) praised Gaskill as “a tough guy” and promised to push for a $125 million package that includes more funding for school resource officers.

Proponents of increased school security immediately embraced Gaskill as a real-world example of what a well-trained “good guy with a gun” can do when a school is under fire. Many contrasted Gaskill’s actions with those of the uniformed resource officer shown on videotape waiting outside Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during a February shooting that left 17 people dead.

The Parkland activists haven’t responded to Noir’s comments directly, though they have gone on the offensive against people who’ve peddled conspiracy theories and otherwise tried to discredit them.

“I just think it’s a testament to the sick immaturity and broken state of our government when these people feel the need to peddle conspiracy theories about people that were in a school shooting where 17 people died, and it just makes me sick,” David Hogg told BuzzFeed News. “It’s immature, rude and inhuman for these people to destroy the people trying to prevent the death of the future of America because they won’t.”

I think most, if not all, of the students in question would be thrilled if we didn't know their names, since that would mean they hadn't been victimized by mass shooters. They could be regular students, just going to class and hanging out with friends.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[FloraKitty35]

Here are my photos from March for Our Lives in Philadelphia.

[Destiny]

Just a reminder, while I wholeheartedly approve of posting pics in this thread, if you are posting more than two, please put the rest under a spoiler so the helpmeets don’t have to come along and do it. Thanks friends!

I wish I had been able to go!

[fraurosena]

A truly presidential reaction to the Marches.

 

[47of74]

A Facebook friend had shared this photo she had come across online.

This is awesome.  

[onekidanddone]

Around 500 people showed up to the little "granny" march. We walked up and down one block outside a retirement community. I clocked in 1.5 miles  on my pacer app and I'm exhausted. Ugh I'm old. Well no, not as old as most of the people there, but still. A far cry from the marches I did in NYC through central park, and the ones on the National Mall. 

I fell right to sleep when I got home.  Got up and found this Tweet by singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier.

 

 

[WiseGirl]

Amazing day. I believe our children are our future. Each and every speaker was wonderful. Lots of tears, clapping, chanting, and cheering. #VoteThemOut  #March_For_Our_Lives

[onekidanddone]

 

[FloraKitty35]

This morning when I was waiting for my train to Center City, I saw plenty of signs for the march.  Many of the people I saw with them boarded the Northeast Regional for DC and others got on the R2 for Philly.  

[FloraKitty35]

The Wilmington march had a surprise guest, former VP Biden.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2018/03/24/delaware-students-fill-wilmington-streets-protest-gun-violence/447608002/

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/03/24/social-media-march-for-our-lives-delaware/33146635/

 

[Destiny]

I know there are posts missing from here. I'm sorry. I'm going to go ahead and make the new thread I did last night over again, so let's recreate what we can there. 

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