Yesterday morning, thousands of Charlotteans gathered in solidarity with over a million other people at 800 other rallys around the country, all marching against gun violence in schools (there were an estimated 800,000 people in the Washington, D.C. rally alone).
The movement, called “March For Our Lives”, was inspired by the Florida students who fought for their lives during a school shooting in February.
According to their 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.”
Roughly 3,000 students, parents, and concerned citizens gathered in First Ward Park in Uptown Charlotte starting at 11am to hear from former Sandy Hook Elementary students and other speakers;
At noon, the crowd began to march down North Caldwell Street to 3rd Street, chanting a promise to vote out pro-gun politicians as rain fell on their signs.
When the march arrived in Marshall Park, there were several other speakers and closing statements before everyone was dispursed at roughly 1pm;
There were other local marches yesterday in Rock Hill, Mooresville and Hickory.