Hundreds gather for ‘March for Our Lives’ in Aptos

Hundreds of Central Coast residents joined the nationwide ‘March for Our Lives’ rally.

Crowds gathered at Aptos Village Park on Saturday morning to call for more gun control.

Organizer Jen Allen has four children and works in the school system, she says she doesn’t want them to have to fight for the same thing. She took on organizing the march because she says she’s passionate about gun control, “I feel so strongly that guns, automatic guns and semi-automatic weapons are wrong, they need to go.”

Allen says she’s proud of how many people came out today, “I’m grateful that people are listening and want to raise their voice.”

Vietnam veteran and former elementary school teacher, Buzz Gray, says he’s seen the impacts of automatic weapons and believes they have no place in civilian hands. “Up close and personal I know the destruction it can do, and no civilian should have an AR-15. I hope to see the automatic weapons like the AR-15 are not available to the average person, they’re not sold in stores, there’s no use for them.” Gray says.

Gray says he’s seen how protesting has played out in history and has confidence that these children speaking up will get things done. “I was young during the civil rights movement when we marched with Dr. King and it’s going to work for them, I have a lot of confidence in them and I’m really proud of them.”

Aside from gun control Gray also hope this will bring more understanding and conversation among peers and teachers, “Smart minds have to get together and figure out not only the gun part with the NRA, but also how to reach out to those kids who might have a tendency to do something like this and reach them early.”

There were also a lot of young kids in attendance. Maya Giuliani and Dalia Dubin are both 8th graders, they say they never expected to be part of something like this so young. “I never thought that this would have to happen, but now that it is happening I feel like it’s important for it to happen otherwise we would not get anywhere with what we are trying to say,” says Dubin.

Giuliani says while she knows the world will never be perfectly safe, she says we can try, “It’s not ever going to be the safest, but the more that we try the more that we can change.”

Retired Special Education teacher, Sherry Ascher, says “being a teacher or just being a person in this world you just get incensed by the fact that there is gun violence at schools. There is no reason for anyone to have a assault weapon or bump or any of those things that have the ability to kill multiple people.”