By BRIANA SPINA
News Editor
Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and around the world stood in solidarity with the survivors of last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida by participating in March for Our Lives. The protests, which occured on Saturday, Mar. 24, were organized by students as a demand for action to end gun violence, based around the slogan “enough is enough.” The Albany community gathered at West Capitol Park to join this massive movement.
The crowd at the Capitol was not comprised only of teachers and high school and college students. They were joined by elementary and middle school students, veterans, cops, toddlers, politicians, parents, gun owners, gun violence survivors, and even a few infants. A few organizations had tables set up and were giving out information, including New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV) and Moms Demand Action (MDA).
Patricia Tuz, the Capital Region Coordinator of NYAGV, talked about the organization’s support for various gun reform actions, like the NY Safe Act and the Extreme Risk Protection Order. She still believes that more effective legislation must be put in place and “urge[s]” citizens to call their representatives.
Tricia Pleu of MDA similarly explained that her group advocates for “common sense gun reform on a local, state, and national level” because an average of “96 people per day are killed by guns, 8 of which are children.” She and her team represented the New York chapter of MDA and came out “to support the students and their march.” Pleu was also one of the speakers at the event.
“If your politician is beholden to the NRA,” she said, “vote them out.”
Several high school students made speeches as well. Cindy Lumiere, a junior at Columbia High School, cited an incident of a violent student firing a gun there back in 2004 to remind the crowd that “the Capital Region is not immune to gun violence.”
“Now is the time to make change happen, not when something happens again,” she said.
Amsa Bawla, a senior at Shaker High School, is confident that she and her fellow students are indeed making change.
“I don’t even have a driver’s license and I started a protest!” Bawla said, emphasizing that we have more power than we might think.
On a more serious note, she stated that children “can’t grow up in a nation where school shootings are the norm.” Bawla also took issue with those who interpret the Second Amendment as the right for anyone to have any type of weapon, including rapid-fire guns.
“No American should have the capability to kill one hundred people in one minute,” she said.
Another student in her senior year, Lydia Martel of Bethlehem Central High School, had an emphatic speech as well. She touched on the criticism student activists face, which is mostly focused on their age and supposed naivety.
“I’m tired of being told that I don’t know what I’m talking about, because I sure as hell do,” she said. Martel then pointed out that America’s young people were the ones at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War protests.
Shifting to the topic of guns, she asked “If we are not safe in school, then where are we safe?” In her participation in government class, they were having a debate about gun control, to which she responded “I guess I didn’t know my life was debatable.”
“The school to prison pipeline is turning into the school to casket pipeline,” Martel said later in her speech. “I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When my right to life is taken away by a semi-automatic assault rifle, then there is no liberty or happiness.”
A high school sophomore who did not make a speech, Julia Pugliese, echoed Martel’s frustration.
“I am so tired of seeing deaths and inaction,” Pugliese said.
She described her school district as “conservative” and unsupportive of her activism initiatives.
“I tried to start a walkout,” she said. “I got a lot of hate for it…But I’m not letting that stop me.”
Pugliese noticed that older people are not tackling the gun reform issue with as much “urgency” as she and her peers are, but concluded that the youth will be the ones “to lead, and the adults will follow.”
She is correct: all of the adult speakers lauded the student activists and offered their full support. The president of the Albany Public School Teachers Association, Laura Franz, told the students “your teachers believe in you. We love you. We are proud of you.”
In closing, Franz said “We–your teachers–will be there with you every step of the way. Don’t stop. Don’t give up. You are the change we want to see in the world.”
Assemblyman Phil Steck had the same confidence in the students telling them “you are going to win.” He talked about the NRA and its attempts to intimidate him because of his anti-gun stance. The organization, he said, like the Second Amendment, “has changed over time,” and both are now being used to promote a “far right” agenda. Steck was largely unmoved by the NRA’s scare tactics, and proudly stated that, regarding rates of gun violence, “New York is the third lowest state in the country.” He concluded his segment by playing the song “If It Were Up to Me” by Cheryl Wheeler, in which the lyrics are “Maybe it’s______” that is the cause of the country’s problems, but at the very end, Wheeler sings “I know one thing/
If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns.”
Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy affirmed that Wheelers concluding line has quite a bit of merit, stating that “the states with the toughest gun laws have the lowest rates of gun violence.” She went on to discuss the bipartisan bill to ban bump stocks, to which she is “the proud sponsor.”
“We can no longer afford hollow sympathy,” Fahy said. She also said that today’s youth has “reinspired” her along with her fellow lawmakers and adults everywhere.
Congressman Paul Tonko similarly said that America is “gifted” to have students with such immense “brain power.”
“They have seen too much hurt, pain, and death. And they said ‘No. That’s enough.’” Tonko said. “We are seeing civic responsibility from the youngest in our society.”
He addressed the common argument used by gun supporters in the wakes of these tragedies: the claim that the shooter is mentally ill.
“If you believe it’s about mental health, then fund mental health programs in schools,” he said. He also cited a statistic that proved that people with mental illnesses “twelve times more likely to be subject to violence and are unlikely to actually commit violence.”
Too often, he continued, “students who are bullied” or undergo other psychologically painful experiences “take to weapons” to release this pain. He said that “we have to see how our children are hurting” and give them the help they need before they resort to violent means.
The last speaker was Sheila Poole, Acting COmmissioner of the NYS Office of Children and Family Services. She spoke on behalf of Governor Cuomo, who was at the March for Our Lives in New York City.
“The truth is,” she said, “our children are being better leaders than the ones in Washington. It is a testament to the courage and leadership of all New Yorkers.”
The overall sentiment of the protest can be summed up in this quote from Pleu’s earlier speech: “Seeing you all here today proves that this is not a moment. This is a movement.”
