Dailysunnews9ja HOME » NEWS »

Parkland students"march for our lives"rally@ White House

The White house said it "Applauded" pro-gun control demonstrators at the MARCH FOR OUR LIVES on saturday without directly addressing their calls for stricter gun regulation, although Donald trump did not weigh in on twitter, as he is prone to do.

"We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their first amendment rights today," said white house spokesperson Lindsey Walters.

She added " keeping our children safe is a top priority of the president's, which is why he urged congress to pass the fix Nics and stop school violence Acts, and signed them into law. Additionally, on friday, the Department of Justice issued the rule to ban bump stocks following through on the president's commitment to ban devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns."

Trump spent much of the morning at the Trump international golf club in west Palm Beach,Florida.The White House did not respond to questions about his activities there.

The Fix Nics 2017 Act would tighten the country's background checks system. The legislation provides federal agencies with a few more incentives to submit  records to tyhe background check system something they are already required by the law to do.

The stop School Violence Act  would authorize $50m in grant funding for campus safety improvements, including training for local law enforcement and faculty and the development of an anonymous reporting system to identify early warning signs of potential threats.

Both pieces of legislation were part of the omnibus government bill that Trump signed on Friday. Other politicians from Both sides of the partisan divide weighed in as well.

Senator Marco Rubio.

 Florida senator Marco Rubio said in a statement " I commend those who today are peacefully exercising their first amendment rights to march in favor of a gun ban."

Rubio, who came under criticism from survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in a televised town hall,added "While i do not agree with all of the solutions they propose, i respect their views and recognize that many Americans  support certain gun bans. However many other Americans do not support a gun ban. They too want to prevent mass shootings, but view banning guns as an infringement on the second amendment rights of the law abiding citizens that ultimately will not prevent these tragedies."

in contrast, a number of Democrats actively participated in marches held across the country. senators Brian Schatz of  Hawaii and Amy Klobuchar of minnesota were among those who marched in washington. senator Sherrod Brown attended an event in columbus and senator Elizabeth Warren attended an event in Boston. Barrack obama also expressed his support on twitter, saying " Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today's marches happen. keep at it. You're leading us forward,Nothing can stand in the way of millions of vioces calling for change."

Trump, who ran as a strong supporter of gun rights, has taken several different positions on new legislation in the aftermath of the Florida shooting. Most recently, he proposed arming teachers while backing away from earlier statements about raising the legal age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21.

On friday, the U.S justice department proposed rule changes that would effectively ban bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns. Bump stocks were used by Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock to kill 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.

Trump heralded the Doj's move on Twitter saying "We'll ban all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machineguns."

Trump has also proposed extreme risk protection orders, which would provide law enforcement and family members with a legal way to petition a court to temporarily remove an unstable person's guns, and block them from buying new ones.

Dailysunnews9ja HOME » NEWS »

March for our lives..

Marchers descended on Washington DC from around US to call for gun reform in the "march for our lives " demonstrations. Lois Beckett spoke to some of those taking part.

"We have not forgotten what happened inm Sandy Hook and Columbine and Virginia  Tech. Those things happened a long time ago,and people tried putting them in the back of their minds,but we are showing here that we have not forgotten about any of that," said Ruqaiyah

The shooting that first affected her directly was sandy hook, she said. "i was very young" she said. " i was nervous, i did not really understand what it was about. i remember being afraid".

For Amanah, it was "when it happened here" there was a school shooting nearby in maryland last week.


The father and daughter came to washington to show their support for the parkland students and to advocate for a ban on assault weapons.

"i think the second amendment needs to be repealed and amended. i don't think the right to own a gun should be unlimited," Steve graig said.

Maddie Graig said she thought social media had changed the gun control debate, allowing students to speak directly to each other and share their experiences. "for columbine, there wasn't that social media presence."now, she said, "you can hear every student's opinion. there's a lot more awareness of what's going on across America."

Alice Gambino,age 42,Silver spring,maryland

gambino's two sons, age 15 and 8, were too afraid to come to the rally, worried that the large crowds would attract "gun crazies" and that there might be another act of violence.

"you don't have to go. i'll go for you,"she told them.
 Gambino said this was her first protest for gun control. "i think i was waiting for someone else to do something," she said.

"seeing that the kids in the last attack had to rally themselves, i felt very guilty. we the parents should have already been in the streets and we shouldn't have left until we made the change for them."

Jasmine Meelock,17 and Kaeleigh Wedin,16 Greak mills, Maryland

Meelock and Wedin came to the march for our lives just four days after shooting at their high school in southern
Maryland, which left one of their classmates killed, one injured, and a third,the shooter,dead after a confrontation with a school police officer.

The two teenagers had hidden in their classrooms during the shooting,listening to the principal call over the loudspeaker to exit the halls.

"it was a little bit scary at first when the police officers came into our classrooms. They had guns. It was really chaos. they kicked down the door. it was really loud. A lot of us hadn't seen guns before,"said Meelock.

" I was close to it." said Wedin. "We went on lockdown, we were all waiting to know if we were going to be Ok. If there was a threat to us. We were all planning what we were going to do if we had to get out throught the window."

The shooter had posted on social media and in private messages before the shooting that he was depressed and guns, they said.

Ayana Trottier,17,Turtle Mountain reservation,North Dakota

Trottier had traveled as part of a group from the Turtle
Mountain Indian reservation in North Dakota near the canadian border. Her school's student council had organized the trip to show their support for parkland students, and in reaction to the series of threats their school and town had faced in recent weeks.

It was the teenagers' first march, Trottier and the other young women wore ceremonial ribbon skirts to show the importance of the march. "They're very sacred," she said.

" We want our voices to be heard," she said. "As minorities we understand feeling speechless or not being heard."