Anti-Gun Marchers Demand Action

OCEAN CITY – More than a thousand people gathered and marched along the Ocean City Boardwalk March 24 against gun violence and in favor of stricter gun control, one of hundreds of gatherings around the country.  
Many carried signs attacking the National Rifle Association, which was also a target of sharp criticism from many of the speakers, who stated the organization has far too much influence on elected officials.
Dubbed the March for Our Lives, the events were a response to the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 dead, 17 more wounded, and galvanized young activists around the nation.
In addition to a massive rally in Washington, which organizers said drew close to 800,000; March 24 saw events in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. It also saw local marches like the one in Ocean City, organized by a senior from Egg Harbor Township High School, Emily McGrath.
The Ocean City event began at Fifth Street on the boardwalk and included numerous speakers, including elected officials and others running for office, but it was a 12-year-old boy who spontaneously asked to have a minute on the microphone that seemed to inspire the crowd the most.
Cameron Reed Amsler, 12, of Newark, Del., said he was part of a depressed generation, but also a great one.
“This generation is going to fix the last broken pieces,” he said. 
Several of the speakers cited other school shootings, including the massacres at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
But they said the shooting in Florida last month seems to have been a turning point for young activists, who have in turn brought the issues of gun control and gun violence to the center of the national debate.
“Today we stand in solidarity with the victims all over the country whose lives are unjustly taken by the mindless menace of gun violence,” McGrath said. “We stand with the families of the victims who continue to live and persevere. And we stand with the students of every school because no child should have to worry about being in a building made for learning.”
While student activists have led American social movements in the past, particularly in the 1960s movements for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, in the latest push for tougher gun laws, it is high school students taking a leadership position locally and nationally. Parkland student Emma Gonzalez has become a national figure in the weeks since the attack in Florida.
McGrath has been active in her high school for more than a year, regularly asking the Egg Harbor Township Board of Education for action on a school policy for transgendered students.
On the Ocean City Boardwalk, she said her peers are numb from reports of school shootings and felt powerless after the latest.
“Regardless of how much our hearts break for the victims, it’s simply a matter of time until the next one,” she said.
Participants traveled from throughout the region to attend, but there was a strong contingent in the crowd of Ocean City residents. From the cheer that went up when McGrath mentioned Egg Harbor Township High School, it was clear there were a lot of young people from Atlantic County as well.
McGrath thanked several groups for their help in organizing the event, including Indivisible of Cape May County, local members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Action Together New Jersey, Young Democrats of Atlantic County, and others.
She also thanked Ocean City for allowing the event.
The crowd was a mix of high school-aged teens, parents with young children, and many with gray hair. A few men wore hats that identified themselves as veterans of the Army or Navy, and many carried signs lambasting the NRA, one of the most effective organizations in lobbying against stricter firearm legislation.
It was a primarily Democratic crowd, with appearances by Democratic 2nd District Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo and other representatives.
Two men seeking the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat set to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo also spoke.
Sean Thom and William Cunningham are on the ballot for the Democratic nomination, as are Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Tanzie Youngblood.
McGrath said she invited all of the Democratic candidates to speak, but only two accepted. Cunningham and Thom both criticized Van Drew, who has received high marks from the NRA. Several in the crowd booed at the mention of Van Drew’s name.
Many called on the young people in the audience to take their involvement to the voting booth when they turn 18.
For the most part, the numerous speakers focused on gun control more than broader partisan politics, although few got into specifics. Some in attendance carried signs calling for a reinstatement of the lapsed federal assault weapons ban, which was in effect from 1994 until 2002, while speakers decried the so-called bump stocks, which allow for a faster rate of fire from semiautomatic weapons.
There were also suggestions of banning high-capacity magazines, and for more stringent background checks at the national level.
One speaker suggested a law allowing authorities to temporarily take firearms from someone believed to be a danger to himself or others.
Many carried signs opposing AR-15s, a style of quick-firing semiautomatic rifles with a pistol grip and a detachable magazine. There is millions of this style of rifle in private hands throughout the United States.
They are not the weapon used in the most violent gun deaths – that distinction goes to handguns by order of magnitude – but that style of rifle has often been used in the high-profile mass shootings, including in Sandy Hook, in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. in 2012, in Las Vegas, Nev. and in a church in Texas last year, and in the Florida high school shooting last month.
Rev. Dawn Fortune of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Atlantic County, near Stockton University, said the thoughts and prayers offered by many elected officials after a mass shooting was not enough.
“You know, thoughts and prayers are my stock and trade. Ministers get training in how to do ritual. And that’s what we do. That’s what people turn to when they’re in times of pain or grief,” she said. “But I have to tell you I’ve been to enough vigils, and I’ve lit enough candles, and I’ve read enough names for a lifetime. I don’t want to do another ritual where we read the names of children who have been killed,” Fortune said.
Some in the crowd were impatient with the speakers, especially the elected officials and those seeking office, and after about an hour, calls of “time to march” could be heard from the back of the crowd – calls that got more frequent as more time passed.
Eventually, the march began, proceeding for several blocks along the waterfront way, with participants chanting and carrying signs.
To contact Bill Barlow, email bbarlow@cmcherald.com.