People all over the continent to march against gun violence

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Young people are taking to the streets of Washington, DC today to call attention to gun violence in the US.

Similar events are happening all over North America — and even the globe — in what has been dubbed “The March For Our Lives.”

One such even is also taking place here in Vancouver at 10:00 a.m.

Seventeen-year-old Ayeesha Beg is helping organize the event, and says if adults aren’t willing to affect change, it’s up to the voters of tomorrow to lead the charge.

“Because a lot of people in power are not addressing the issue and they’re choosing to ignore it so, we as youth, need to stand up and people need to know that this is what we believe in and this is what we stand for.”

She says gun violence runs deep within Canadian society as well.

“[Through] the forms of gang violence and there’s guns that are being held by children everyday in Canada, in Vancouver, in our province of BC,” she explains. “And the reason why I stand in solidarity with the survivors of Florida because I believe this isn’t just an American problem, it’s a human crisis, and students everywhere in the world should be able to go to school without having to fear [for] their lives.”

Marchers plan to make their way from Jack Poole Plaza past the US Consulate.

“We have to stand up for ourselves and nobody else is going to do it anymore,” Beg tells NEWS 1130.

The march is being put on by Democrats Abroad Vancouver, March On Vancouver, and #actnow.

Students rally across the US, world

The marches in the US are organized by students demanding the government take steps to end gun violence and mass shootings, and make school safety a priority.

More than 20,000 people are expected at the rally nearest the Florida school where last month’s deadly shooting occurred.

Police presence was heavy early Saturday at a park near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High as organizers set up and demonstrators streamed in.

Eighteen-year-old Sabrine Brismeur and 17-year-old Eden Kinlock came from schools 20 miles away to pass out water.

Kinlock said that may seem “like a small thing but it helps in the bigger picture.”

In the country’s capital, Stonehill College student Michael MacEachern says he’s studying to be an elementary school teacher.

“I’m here to march for all my students in the future so I’m not going to stand around and say I didn’t do anything during this time where students are going to school everyday, afraid that they can be shot and I’m just not going to stand by and let that happen,” he says.

Organizers in the US capital are expecting as many as 500,000 participants at the Washington rally.

Meantime, dozens of protesters are also rallying outside the US Embassy in Britain in solidarity with the “March for Our Lives” protest.

Students, families with children and other protesters raised placards reading “Protect kids not guns,” “Never again,” and “Enough is enough” Saturday outside the new embassy building in south London.

Amnesty International UK’s director Kate Allen referred to the 1996 school killings at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, in which 16 students and a teacher were killed. “After our own school shooting at Dunblane, new gun ownership laws were introduced in Britain and that’s exactly what’s needed in the United States, where gun deaths are a national tragedy.”

There are more than 800 other gatherings planned around the world.

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