Toronto students will join hundreds of thousands of Americans who are expected to march down the streets of Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand changes to current U.S. gun laws.
The rally, titled ‘March For Our Lives’, is being spearheaded by a group of students who survived the Feb. 14 school shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people. These students have been extremely vocal about the need for reforms to U.S. gun laws.
According to the ‘March For Our Lives’ website, families “will take to the streets of Washington D.C. to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings. The collective voices of the ‘March for Our Lives’ movement will be heard.”
Sister rallies are happening all around the world in conjunction with the march in D.C., including one in Toronto. Participants will meet at Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto’s City Hall around 10 a.m. on March 24 and march past the U.S. consulate to Queen’s Park.
Torontonians are also heading to Washington Friday night with the intention of joining the marchers.
“People can expect a lot of passion from tomorrow's march. This is a fight that's been going on for a long time. Too many young lives are taken. It's been too long,” said Dewitt Lee of Democrats Abroad to CP24. “They're taking a position of leadership, speaking to leaders directly, and begging for change. What I love about this march is that all communities are recognizing that we have to stand together.”
That is one reason why Kat Schamel, a dual Canadian and American citizen, said she will be on that 7:30 p.m. bus.
“I spent more than half of my life in America and really this is an issue that strikes close to home,” she told CTV’s Your Morning. “Growing up in America and going to school in America for the first few years of my life, I was very aware of the gun issues.
Schamel said she comes from a pro-gun family. Her father and grandfather were both lifelong members of the National Rifle Association of America; however, she believes there needs to be more regulation.
“The idea that children are going to school every day scared for their lives, scared that they won’t come home to their families, that really is a human problem, not just an American problem. This should be a worldwide issue.”
Other participants say they are marching in solidarity with their American counterparts because they are “heartsick” over the 18 U.S. school shootings that have occurred this year.
Annie Parry, a mother who will be marching in the Washington event Saturday while her daughter participates in Toronto, says that if people believe gun violence is wrong, now is the time to say something.
“We want to send a message to our government that we expect them to hold true to the gun safety legislation that we have already and to not let it weaken,” she told CTV News Toronto Friday.
Students taking part in the march are demanding that a “comprehensive and effective bill” be brought before Congress to address these gun issues. Specifically, they want to ban the sale of assault weapons like the ones used in school shootings. They also want to prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines and to close the loophole in background check laws, making it mandatory for everyone who wants to purchase a gun.
The students have been clear they do not want to ban people from owning guns.
“What we are asking for is not to take away people’s guns. We are not asking to completely change the gun laws in America. What we are asking for is reform and just a little more safety,” Schamel said.
