DENVER — On a hot summer day, hundreds of people called for action Saturday at Denver’s Civic Center Park.
“I ask everyone to please start caring about gun violence before it affects you or someone you love,” one of the speakers said.
The demonstration was one of many planned around the country as part of the national March for Our Lives movement.
Its inaugural event happened in 2018 after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 people.
“We have to stand up for [my daughter] and stand up for all the kids that are growing up,” Emily Justice said.
She and her husband David attended because they want a better future for their 5-year-old daughter Cora. They had been rallying for gun law reform before she was even born.
“Cora shouldn’t have to be scared to go to school. To go to the grocery store. To go to church. To go to any of those places,” Emily said.
For some in the crowd, the issue of gun violence is personal. Katie Wray lost her nephew to suicide four years ago.
“The ubiquitousness of guns and the damage it is doing on children is simply intolerable to me,” she said. “I just feel like our government is not representing us and that movements like this are the only game that’s going to make a difference.”
For 17-year-old Lucy Sarkissian, a survivor of the 2019 STEM School shooting in Highlands Ranch, change can’t come soon enough.
“I’m here today to demand action for the students we’ve lost, for survivors, and so you don’t ever have to feel the pain that I felt,” they said. “Us kids are the future, and we demand more than thoughts and prayers. We demand policy and change.”
In addition to multiple speakers, including State Sen. Tammy Story and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, there was an 11-minute moment of silence for the victims of the recent Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
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