As teens and others prepare for a noon march in Northampton, Amherst’s march begins and Greenfield activists also prepare to march, they join others from across Massachusetts and the nation as part of a global day of rallies against gun violence and mass shootings.
The day began at 10 a.m. at Kendrick Park in Amherst. From there, participants walked to the Town Common in a rally organized by the League of Women Voters of Amherst.
Cynthia Brubaker, a League member, said in an email that the League has promoted gun safety since 1990, and that it considers proliferation of handguns and semi-automatic assault weapons a major health and societal threat.
In addition to the march, the League will be registering voters, the Raging Grannies will perform songs and there will be several speeches, including one by retired state Rep. Ellen Story.
The League is expected to be joined by other groups, including include Moms Demand Action and University of Massachusetts students.
Pioneer Valley March For Our Lives protesters will gather at Northampton High School at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, before marching to City Hall at noon for a rally that will feature entirely student speakers, with the exception of Anne Thalheimer, who survived a school shooting when she attended Simon’s Rock, and is currently affiliated with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“You are the spark,” Zalia Maya, 17, said Thursday evening to the students from Parkland. “We’re the kindling.”
“And we just want you to know, there’s kindling everywhere, all over the country” said Ben Moss-Horwitz, the leader of what he called the loosely organized organizers. “We’re ready to stick with you.”
Greenfield marchers are planning to gather at the Town Common from noon to 3 p.m.
“I created this event because I want to show my support for the kids and my kids with some action,” Greenfield event organizer Alex DeMelo wrote on Facebook.
Students from Easthampton High School left Friday night for Washington, D.C., where they will join an estimated half-million marchers near the U.S. Capitol building for a several-hour rally. That would match last year’s women’s march and make it one of the largest Washington protests since the Vietnam War era, rally organizers said.
Some of the Amherst High School activists are also in Washington for a band trip, and Moss-Horwitz said they plan to take part in the national march.
With thousands of demonstrators gathering in Washington, organizers of the March for Our Lives rally say the country has reached a historic emotional tipping point on gun violence.
The “March For Our Lives” rally in Boston sets off from Madison Vocational High School in the Roxbury neighborhood on Saturday morning and ends downtown at the Boston Common in the afternoon.
Rallies are also taking place in a number of other Massachusetts communities, including Ipswich, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Springfield and Worcester. They’re also happening in neighboring Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
The events are timed with a larger rally Saturday in Washington, D.C. led by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed in a Valentine’s Day shooting.
Saturday morning, The Boston Globe reported families of the 17 victims of the shooting were flown to D.C. with the help of the New England Patriots.
A poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 69 percent of respondents and half of Republicans now favor stronger gun control laws.
Activists are looking to channel the energy of this youth-led initiative into the midterm congressional elections this fall with elements like on-site voter registration booths.
Dozens of protesters are rallying outside the U.S. Embassy in London in solidarity with the “March for Our Lives” protest against gun violence.
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 U.K.’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.
She said: “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.”
Recorder staff writer David McClellan, Amherst Bulletin writer Scott Merzbach and the Associated Press contributed to this report.