Newtown residents join gun control march on Washington
On Saturday about 100 residents from Newtown, Conn., along with thousands of protesters, will rally in support of gun control legislation on the National Mall.
Gun rights and gun control advocates demonstrate in the Pennsylvania Capital building Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Harrisburg, Pa. Residents of Newtown, Conn. are expected to march in support of gun control in Washington on Saturday.
Matt Rourke/AP
Washington
Residents from Newtown, Conn., are joining a march on Washington for gun control on Saturday with parents, pastors, survivors of gun violence and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Organizers said they are expecting thousands of participants for the rally on the National Mall, including about 100 from Newtown and buses from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. Others are flying in from Seattle, San Francisco and even Alaska. They will gather Saturday at the Capitol Reflecting Pool at 10 a.m. and will begin marching down Constitution Avenue toward the Washington Monument at 11 a.m. A rally is planned on the monument grounds at noon.
Molly Smith, the artistic director of Washington's Arena Stage, and her partner organized the march, inspired by the December massacre that killed 20 first graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, she said. The gunman also fatally shot his mother and committed suicide.
"With the drum roll, the consistency of the mass murders and the shock of it, it is always something that is moving and devastating to me. And then, it's as if I move on," Smith said. "And In this moment, I can't move on. I can't move on.
"I think it's because it was children, babies," she said. "I was horrified by it."
While she's never organized a political march before, Smith said she was compelled to press for a change in the law. The march organizers support President Barack Obama's call for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as for universal background checks for gun sales. They also want lawmakers to require gun safety training for all buyers of firearms.
