Students Lead Historic March Against Gun Violence

This past Saturday, students led a march on Washington, DC and nearly 800 other cities around the world in response to gun violence in the United States.

Via the March for or Lives website:

"The mission and focus of March For Our Lives is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.  No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country."

Some estimates put the turnout as the largest single-day protest in US history, rivaling the inaugural Women's March in January 2017.

Whichever actually was larger, it's notable that both protests have occurred during Donald Trump's Republican Administration. So, along with his popular vote loss in the 2016 election, his potential complicity in Russian interference, his revolving door of staff members, and his ongoing, historically-low approval rating, his mandate and legitimacy as head of state are more questionable than, certainly, any president during my lifetime.

In addition, as speculative 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden trades toxic "locker room talk" with fellow septuagenarian Donald Trump, I think at this point the anti-Trump resistance is, without question, being led by women and youth, rather than white men who talk a big game about beating each other up and/or who demand that grown white men remain centered in politics.

To that point, I attended one of the sister March for Our Lives and was glad to see that it truly seemed to be student-led and intersectional, with only youth speaking and performing, rather than adult politicians. It was also inclusive of those who experience the threat of gun (and police) violence on a daily basis.

It turns out that women and kids have a lot to say about issues that uniquely impact our lives. But, going forward, which politicians are willing to listen? Which ones merely show up, talk at us with the same stump speech, hog the spotlight, and then leave? We see you.

And, to that point, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend Emma Gonzalez's speech from the Washington March. It's one for the ages.