‘We’re over it’: March For Our Lives against gun violence set for Charlotte on Sunday
Charlotte will march on Sunday to advocate for nationwide gun violence prevention reform following recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.
“This year alone, you see more shootings than in years past,” Lora Henley, organizer of the March For Our Lives event in Charlotte, told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday. “It’s just sickening, and we’re over it. It’s time for us to take a stand.”
March For Our Lives is a nationwide march that began in 2018 after the shooting deaths of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Over 300 marches will take place this weekend across the country, but the main demonstration will be held in Washington. on Saturday.
“To bring attention is the main purpose of the march, and to show Washington that (the) majority of the country is for [gun reform],” said Henley, a rising senior at Myers Park High School.
The event in Charlotte will begin at 11 a.m. at First Ward Park before a march toward First United Methodist Church and then back toward the park. Marching in Charlotte was a priority because it is a relativity big city that is surrounded by smaller towns, so people wouldn’t have to travel far to join the cause, she said.
Henley and other marchers are advocating for deeper background checks and raising the minimum age for gun purchasers to 21.
“If it’s 21 for drinking because it’s not safe enough, I think having a gun at 18 is definitely not safe enough,” Henley said.
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, state Sen. Jeff Jackson, former N.C. Rep. Christy Clark, Democratic Charlotte politician Kendrick Cunningham and local activists are scheduled to speak at the march, Henley said.
“If the majority of Americans support [gun reform] then the people we have elected to represent us need to do what their people are telling them to,” she said.
Other marches will be held across North Carolina this weekend, including Asheville, Raleigh and Wilmington on Saturday, and Salisbury and Winston-Salem on Sunday.
Marchers at Charlotte’s event will be able to write letters to Congress and to the families of the victims of the school shooting in Uvalde, Henley said.
“We want as many people as possible writing those letters,” she said.
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
