FAIRFAX, Va.Call it holding the gun lobby accountable or better yet, ordering politicians to get off its gravy train of campaign cash and demanding that it shut its doors.
That, and more, was the objective of thousands of marchers, including union teachers, who descended August 4 on the headquarters of the notorious National Rifle Association in a far section of Fairfax County, a D.C. suburb.
Led by some surviving students from the Valentines Day massacre at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the anti-NRA march, signs and chants on the gun lobbys doorstep was one of two dozen such pro-gun control anti-gun lobby marches nationwide the same day. Unionists and union supporters participated in the Fairfax march, though without formal insignia or identification.
Other marches were New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Denver, the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Baltimore, the Bay Area, many other medium-sized cities, and several college towns. The Denver march occurred despite gun nuts threats to organizers.
No more dead! ran one repeated chant at the Fairfax march. Others included Hey, hey, NRA! How many kids did you kill today? the labor-created Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! and Hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA has got to go.
All the marches had the same goals: To keep pushing the crusade for meaningful gun control. To keep guns out of the hands of both school shooters and teachers. To vilify the gun lobby, including its role as a conduit for Russian money to GOP President Donald Trumps 2016 political campaign.
And to put politicians on notice that unless they turn down the lobbys cash and start listening to parents, teachers and students, and vote for real gun control in the U.S., theyll lose.
If any of our leaders do not share our vision of a greater society and a safer society for our kids, then vote them out! one adult speaker declared. That chant has occurred at national pro-gun control marches for months. At the Fairfax march, it was accompanied by dozens of volunteers registering new voters.
The campaign against the gun lobby, which wraps itself in the 2nd Amendments right to keep and bear arms, has been mounting ever since the Florida gunman massacred three teachers, all AFT members, and 14 students at Stoneman Douglas.
Surviving Stoneman Douglas students, with nothing to lose, have led the national gun control campaign, including a www.marchforourlives component. One high point: An enormous pro-gun-control protest that filled Washingtons Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol to near the White House in spring. That parade drew hundreds of thousands of people and thousands of unionists.
The lobby responds with hysterical alarms to its members that marchers, including the students, are trying to take our guns away. It also demands every teacher be armed a demand both individual teachers and their unions emphatically reject. I dont want to have a gun or my fellow teachers to have weapons in schools, said special ed teacher Chris DeRosa, a National Education Association member.
And What part of A well-regulated militia do you not understand? one Fairfax marchers sign asked in reply to the NRAs constitutional quote. The full 2nd Amendment reads: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Though many signs were pre-printed including those picturing young gun murder victims most were not. For many Fairfax marchers, like the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, the protest was personal:
- Annie Medding, a junior at Virginia Tech University, site of a massacre 11 years ago which killed 31 students and professors before the gunman shot himself, said it almost hap-pened again last year. Thats even though there are safety measures all over the Blacksburg, Va., campus. And at orientation, they made it a much bigger deal than at other campuses.
Police were able to detect and arrest an engineering student, just like the other guy, who had amassed weapons and several thousand rounds of ammunition. I remember my Mom kept texting me Have you seen this? The other guy was a student, Seung Hui Cho, with untreated mental illness.
As a girl (in red), I hope to have as many rights as a gun (in red) some day, Meddings two-sided sign read. The other side: 18th century laws cannot regulate 20th century weapons. Her boyfriend, John Clark, a Radford (Va.) College senior, handmade a 2018 Back To School List sign: Pens & pencils$10 Notebooks$20 Backpack$40 Casket$1000 Funeral$10,000 TOTALSAD!
- Edward Hale, an AFT member and Mark Twain Middle School teacher in Fairfax, started his hand-made sign several years ago. Then, it read 10,000 gun murders since Sandy Hook, the massacre of 20 elementary school students and six teachers in Connecticut just before Christmas in 2012. Every year, he added, hes had to change the first digit on the sign. Its now a 5.
This weighs on their minds, Hale said of his students. When some become accepting or blas, he warns them Dont get used to it. In their lively discussions, Some want to ban all guns. Some want to do nothing. Some talk about gun laws in other countries.
- Dianne Shenton, of Annapolis, Md., came close to mourning her daughter as a mass shooting victim. Her daughter, whom she declined to name, got her first job out of college as an ad sales rep at the Annapolis Capital-Gazette. She left for another post six months ago. Her successor, Rebecca Smith, was the first of five to die on June 29 when a gunman with a grudge opened fire, then walked in, shooting.
Even in my state, the NRAs stranglehold has got to end, Shenton said. A man criminally convicted of harassment of his spouse was able to buy a gun a year ago in Anne Arundel County, she noted.
But the NRA gets its power not just from its millions in campaign contributions, but from its members single-mindedness, judging politicians solely by their position for or against guns. At least one speaker in Fairfax said gun control advocates should start basing their vote on that sole issue, too.
Frequent signs denounced the pro-gun stance of Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., who represents the area, and who is one of the GOPs most-vulnerable incumbents as her districts electorate shifts from red to purple or blue.
Comstock wasnt the only politician marchers criticized. Some signs linked the NRA, the Republicans and the Russians. Fire Congress, not guns, one hand-made sign said. Blood on NRA, GOP, DJT, its other side added. DJT: Donald J. Trump. Printed around the initials: Red, bloody handprints.
I couldnt look my students in the eye if I didnt come here, explained Ronnie Ross, a middle-school teacher in nearby Fauquier County. They heard about the march on social media and asked me Mr. Ross, are you coming? he said before going off to meet their incoming school bus. They dont feel safe. My kids are scared.
Rosss doing something more: Running for state senator in two years. His foe is Jill Vogel, the right-wing incumbent and GOP lieutenant gubernatorial nominee in the 2017 election. Her slate lost.
Charleston, W. Va., retiree Ben Harris, said his congressman, Republican Alex Mooney, ignores me when he brings up gun control. His senator, Democrat Joe Manchin, who is seeks re-election this fall in the deep-red state, is very cautious and has got one foot on each side of the line.
I have two daughters and two grandchildren explained Dianne Trickey-Rokenbrod, holding a Grandmas for gun control sign. The retired Keuka College occupational therapist traveled from her Hopewell, N.Y., home for the march. Im worried about the rising number of deaths by guns while our lawmakers have been bought and paid for by the NRA, which has taken money from the Russians.
The former registered Republican includes her congressman, Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., in that indictment. But my party left me, and shes changing her registration to independent. And when Reed holds town halls, says Trickey-Rokenbrod, he either agrees to disagree or accuses critics of being extreme Ithaca liberals, referring to the home city of progressive Cornell University.
My hope is to vote them out, she says of pro-gun lobby lawmakers and that the NRA goes bankrupt, referring to its money problems, reported that morning.
Source: PAI