Demonstrations were organized on Saturday, while a group of senators attempts to agree on timid legislative measures in response to recent killings.
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“It’s different this time.” David Hogg continues to repeat it in the gallery in front of the thousands of people gathered on this Saturday, June 11 at the foot of the Washington Monument, in the heart of the capital. “This is different this time,” says this co -founder of the March for Our Lives movement, on the occasion of a national mobilization day in favor of increased firearms control. The recent killings, in May, in a supermarket in Buffalo and in the school of Uvalde replaced this throbbing question in the heart of the news. They also recalled the paralysis of the congress, where the sector lobby counts on a republican party acquired in its interests, on behalf of the second amendment of the Constitution and its financial contributions to the electoral campaigns.
The crowd was far below the gigantic 2018 gathering in the same place. Is it out of weariness, by resignation before the political deadlock on this issue? An effect of bad weather prevailing on the capital? At the gallery, the speakers succeeded each other. Survivors of mass killings, activists or political leaders, they all testified to the same impatience, with a horizon line: the mid-term elections, in November.
“Voting them out!” Taken up the crowd, meaning that we will have to sanction in the ballot boxes those who oppose any strengthening of the legislation. The great diversity of brandished signs gave an idea of the general state of mind. “Teach love, not confinement”, “teachers are not soldiers”, “fear has nothing to do in our schools” or “human beings rather than meadow dogs”, in reference to the argument of Republican elected officials on the weapons of war, which would be necessary in the face of certain wild animals. On the lawn, immense rows of artificial flowers, white and orange, have been arranged, representing the dead by firearms. The orange flowers symbolize, says a sign, the 5,000 more victims in 2020 compared to 2019.
“a moral question”
Victoria Makanjuola, 23, extended her stay in Washington, where she went to participate in a meeting of progressive organizations, in order to walk against arms. Originally from Plano (Texas), this communication graduate works in an association of the black community. She had “a broken heart” after the killing of Uvalde, and believes that the authorities of Texas “sit on this question of weapons.” But she refuses to believe that the steps are not used for much. “There is strength in the number,” she says. Nothing happens before something horrible happens. “
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