Tens Of Thousands March Through L.A. To Protest Gun Violence; Amy Schumer Praises Student Activists
Tens of thousands of protesters, chanting “Enough is Enough,” joined the children’s crusade in downtown LA today to end gun violence.
“Hey hey NRA, how may kids did you kill today?” they chanted behind a giant March for Our Lives banner that stretched sidewalk-to-sidewalk across 6th Street. ‘Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go” their young voices rang out against the buzz of police and news helicopters hovering overhead.
Both celebratory and serious, the marchers converged on City Hall, where students, celebrities and local politicians raised their voices to put an end to the cycle of school shootings.
After two students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School spoke about the need for change, actress Amy Schumer took the stage and electrified the massive throng with a dramatic appeal: “We stand together for your senselessly slain classmates and say that this has to stop. It is these moments that define us.”
It’s time, she said, for politicians to “stop taking money from the NRA,” and to “thank you students for standing up and saying ‘No More.’”
“They call people like me Hollywood liberals — like there’s something in it for us. Speaking out actually puts targets on our backs.”
Politicians who stand idly by, she said “are digging the graves of the people you are sworn to protect,” and the NRA “translates school shooting into more sales.” Thoughts and prayers, she said, “don’t shield children from bullets. Register and vote out the NRA.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said that it “is time to protect kids and not protect funds,” mocked those who say, after every school shooting, this is not the time to talk about gun violence. “They talk about the 2nd Amendment, but today we show the power of the 1st Amendment to speak up”
Then he told Trump: “Wake up Mr. President and get the hell out of the way.”
Kelly Robbin contributed to this story
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