Atlanta Progressive News

With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale

 

(APN) ATLANTA — Both in Atlanta and nationwide, women and youth are taking the lead on gun reform following another mass school murder on February 14, 2018 that left seventeen students dead and nineteen injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

 

On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, thousands from all across Georgia turned out at Liberty Plaza for a rally organized by the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Georgia chapter.  The crowds spilled out of the plaza onto the sidewalks.

 

The organizers had only planned on about 120 people attending the march from the Center for Civil and Human Rights to Liberty Plaza, but thousands attended.

 

The Georgia Building Authority would not allow Moms Demand Action to use their audio equipment because more people attended than their permit stated, so they had to use a bullhorn, which people in the back could not hear.

 

UPCOMING “MARCH FOR OUR LIVES” AND STUDENT WALK-OUT

 

Meanwhile, a coalition of students from across the country are planning a “March for Our Lives” on Saturday, March 24, 2018.  

 

In Atlanta, the March for Our Lives will start at 11 a.m., and will take the same route as the women’s march.

 

On Wednesday, March 07, 2018, student organizers met with Atlanta City Council members at a meeting convened by Council President Felicia Moore.  Atlanta Progressive News attended the meeting, where students requested assistance with carrying out the march.

 

Also, on Wednesday, March 14, many students across the country are planning to walk out of their classrooms to protest the seemingly endless school shootings.

 

“Politicians are making reckless decisions that only serves the interests of the gun lobby,” Melody Harris, a student at University of Georgia, said at the February rally.

 

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) “received the highest donations from the gun lobby than any Democrat in the country,” Harris said.  

 

“Vote him out!  Vote him out! Vote him out!” thousands shouted.

 

U.S. Rep. Bishop has received nearly fifty thousand dollars, according to opensecrets.org , which is a drop in the bucket to the nearly two million received by U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA).

 

Jake Bush a student from Chamblee High School said the gun problem is devastating generations of young people and that he blames the National Rifle Association (NRA) and complicit politicians.

 

“Less than three months into 2018 there have been seventeen different school shootings,” Bush said.

“Gov. Deal and other politicians are unconcerned with the safety of those they claim to keep safe and are elected to represent.  They are liars, they are hypocrites, and they are as much a part of the gun crisis in this country as the killers,” Bush said.

 

Moms Demand Action opposes permitless carry and any expansion of guns on campus, Anne Allen Westbrook, a spokeswoman, told Atlanta Progressive News at the February rally.

 

“We support improving the background system, not purging mental health records after five years.  We support keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and we support adding a training requirement for getting a concealed permit,” Westbrook said.   

 

Signs displayed such statements as: “NRA No Life Matters,” “Not Banned AR-15 Weapon able to fire 400 rounds in a minute,” and “Change Gun Laws or Change Congress.”

 

(END / Copyright Atlanta Progressive News / 2018)