HomeMy WebLinkAboutAmerica’s children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - Globe & Mail - 03/25/2018 - Globe & Mail - 03/25/20183/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the
country ready to listen?
Hundreds of thousands of students and parents from Newtown, Conn., to
Columbine, Colo., descended on Washington or participated in sister rallies
across the United States on Saturday to condemn the scourge of gun violence
and call on lawmakers for substantive change
JOANNA SLATER >
INII::MFO IN, CONN. AND WASIIIIIIINGFOIN
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1flhnousarnds of IpeopIle fine IFlennsyllvaign a Avenue ki Waslhlington w1hle atteirn&ng the IMairchn for Ouir ll...ives irally on IMairchn
24, 20'.L8, to call for guirn coirntiroll irnneasuires. Hundreds of th ousainds of demonstrators, s„ hndludBng students, teadheirs
and 1parents gathered for the antli gun violleince rally.
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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purple, one pink. For breakfast, he ate a roll then rushed to get ready for the long bus ride
from Connecticut to Washington. He downloaded episodes of The Office to watch on the
drive and took out markers and glue to make a sign.
On a sheet of white poster paper, Joseph pasted a photo of his younger self, cherubic and
eating a cup of ice cream five years ago. Next to it he placed a picture of a semi-automatic
assault -style rifle. "Pick one," he wrote in light -blue marker. In his young life, the
consequences of such a choice were already real. In 2012, he was a first -grader at Sandy Hook
Elementary School when a gunman killed 26 people, including his teacher and some of his
classmates.
Joseph survived by hiding in a bathroom with a little girl. A police officer found them and
carried them out, one on each shoulder, telling them not to open their eyes. Joseph did. The
girl he considered his best friend was dead. So was the boy whose house he was supposed to
go to that afternoon for a play date. His older sister, Sophia, was in third grade and ran out of
the school holding a friend's hand.
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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"I don't want any kid, no matter what the age, to go through that ever again," Joseph, now a
sixth -grader, said as he headed south with his sister and mother to this weekend's March for
Our Lives in Washington. The rally, and more than 800 sister protests, drew hundreds of
thousands of people across the United States and beyond to lobby for stricter firearms laws,
as a growing movement among the country's youth takes on the scourge of gun violence.
Joseph had heard about the march from a friend at school and knew immediately he wanted
to go. He researched the event and told his mother, who remained apprehensive, that he had
to be there. On the bus from Connecticut, he and Sophia, 13, spoke in an animated rush. "I'm
so excited to have our words be spoken," Joseph said. "To have our voices be everybody's
voices."
I don't want any kid, no matter what the age, to go through that ever again.
— Joseph Soriano, 12, a former student at Sandy Hool< Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
Joseph and Sophia are part of a generation of American students who are seizing this
moment to tell their story and to pressure their elected officials for change. Some of them, in
places such as Newtown, Conn., and in cities around the country, have first-hand or repeated
encounters with gun violence. But all of them have grown up with lockdown drills — and
with the awareness that school shootings are a remote but real possibility.
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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AlIpproaciiinna elly 400 IpeopIle firoirrn Newtown, towrn, Co nrn., and n6ghbourhrig aireas travelled to Waslhiirn torn to attend the
IMairch fair ouir Il...lves irally pan IMairchn 24, MIR On DecI::II.4, 2012, a gurnirnarn Id1llled twenty young d4ldirein at Sandy 11 look
IE.11 eirneintairy✓ Schooll hn Newtown.
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Whether America is ready to listen to this new youth movement, ignited by the survivors of
last month's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., is an
open question. When 400 people from the Newtown area boarded eight buses for
Washington in the wee hours of Saturday morning, they carried hopes that the U.S. gun
debate is at a tipping point. But they also know that they have held such hopes before, only
to see a push for national action founder.
Demonstrations such as Saturday's marches galvanize the people who participate in them.
Their ultimate impact, however, depends on continued organizing and, most of all, on
translating voices into votes. "The hard part is always momentum, but I feel these kids are
not going to stop," said Brenda Soriano, 48, Joseph and Sophia's mother, who had never
attended a protest in her life before Saturday. "If people don't listen to them, we're lost."
Breaking a barrier
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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Joselplh SoHano, 12, who was a hirst giradeir at Sandy 11 look IF:Ieirrieintairy Schooll iiia 2012 wh in a gu.unirnain Idled 2
Ipeolplle„ attended the IMairchu fair Ou.uir 1lIves irally lini WaslhIlington, D.C., wWh Ms irnoth eir on Saturday.
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When Joseph and Sophia climbed down the steps of the bus into Washington's Judiciary
Square a little more than two hours later, Ms. Soriano was nervous. She knew there would be
crowds and confusion and hovered close to both children. After the shooting, she said, they
felt afraid for a long time. They were hyper -vigilant, upset by loud noises or by being alone
on a floor of their house. To their mother, the fact that both children wanted to be at
Saturday's march was encouraging, a sign that they were far stronger than in the past.
Joseph and Sophia were not the only kids from Newtown speaking out for the first time.
Adrianna Butler, 12, also survived the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and came to the
march with her mother and aunt. "It took five years, but my daughter said, `I think I'm ready
to do this now,"' Liz Arrindell, Adrianna's mother, said.
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Adrianna made her own sign, which read: "I hid in the corner 1 T h c
71
What about you?"
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
Q'ftm . If people don't listen to there, we're lost.
— Brenda Soriano, 48, Joseph and Sophia's mother
Throughout the day, the Newtown kids and parents spoke with fervent admiration about
the Parkland students. Those students "broke a barrier that people weren't able or willing to
break, " said Marian Mollin, a history professor at Virginia Tech University who studies social
movements. They immediately responded "politically and outwardly" to a mass shooting.
Prof. Mollin noted the long tradition of young people, including high-school students,
leading pushes for political change in the United States during the Civil Rights movement
and the Vietnam War. Today's students "just have to keep going," she said. "If it ends here,
then it's nothing. They know that."
At Saturday's rally, the students vowed to continue their fight. But the prospects of enacting
any significant restrictions on guns at the national level under the current Congress remain
slim. Legislators passed a modest improvement to the background check system as part of
last week's spending package. Earlier this month, they also authorized new grants to schools
for safety programs. But the measures the students are advocating — universal background
checks to purchase firearms, a ban on assault weapons, a prohibition on high-capacity
ammunition magazines — are not under serious consideration.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-americas-children-are-ready-to-talk-about-guns-is-the-country-ready/ 6/11
3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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11 hiroa.ughou.ut the day on IMairdh 24, imeirxndeirs of the Newtown,Conn., dell gahon spolke wWh fervent adirrnlirafiorn of the
students from IParldlaind„ IFla, whose actliorn slurred the inafloinall day of (protest.
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For groups devoted to preventing gun violence, the focus is now on November's midterm
elections and on turning out voters to support their agenda. "Ultimately, unless you kick
some asses out of office, you're not going to see a radical change," said Tom Mauser, a long-
time activist in Colorado whose son Daniel was killed at Columbine High School in 1999.
"Some people have to pay a price for their votes."
Mr. Mauser still remembers the Million Mom March in 2000, a demonstration in favour of
gun restrictions, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to Washington and was even
bigger than Saturday's march. But after that display of strength, "the air kind of went out of
our balloon," Mr. Mauser said. For years, gun -control activists were outnumbered at
legislative hearings by gun -rights advocates. That only began to change after the Newtown
shooting in 2012.
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Ultimately, unless you kick some asses out of office, you're not going to see a
radical change. Some people have to pay a price for their votes.
— Tori Mauser, a long-time activist in Colorado whose son Daniel was Killed at Columbine
High School in 1999.
"Everything you're seeing now has been built in the last five years," said David Stowe, a
founder of the Newtown Action Alliance, the group that organized the buses to Washington
While no significant gun -control legislation has passed in Congress, there has been progress
at the state level and a number of new grassroots organizations were formed — groups that
are assisting and amplifying the student movement.
Even in Newtown, it was a struggle to keep students engaged i g b fi
Parkland shooting. Isabella Wakeman, 16, a junior at Newtown reign 5cnool, saica that tnis
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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this month — and suddenly the group had more than 100 students coming to its meetings.
Roughly 200 of them came to Washington. Their next meeting is Monday after school, said
Isabella, where they will discuss next steps.
Apologies for a generation
Oirgainizeirs es iiirnated the Waslhiiingtoin cirowd at 800,000 ip oipll „ whdle ou.ytsii e experts Put the figuire at airound
200„000.
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As the rally began, the Sorianos made their way toward Pennsylvania Avenue under a nearly
cloudless sky. They moved slowly through thick crowds before settling in a spot near the
National Archives. They were joined by nine more people from Newtown, including three
other students who survived the shooting at Sandy Hook. SorrP fPllr)JAT nrntectr-rc So. -in r
their signs and T-shirts, stopped to thank them or to offer hug to Y o
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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from the larger Newtown group and met people from all over the country. An older man,
seeing Adrianna's sign identifying her as a survivor of a school shooting, approached her and
asked to shake her hand. "I want to apologize for my generation," he said. "We're working on
fixing things." Adrianna, speechless and surprised, simply said "Thank you.
Joseph and Sophia held their signs high, even when their arms began to hurt. They stood
transfixed as Matthew Soto, the brother of Victoria Soto, a Grade I teacher killed at Sandy
Hook Elementary, and later two Newtown high schoolers took to the stage. One of the
Newtown survivors, now a high-school freshman who declined to give her name, wept as
their story and their town became part of a national moment.
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3/26/2018 America's children are ready to talk about guns. Is the country ready to listen? - The Globe and Mail
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people as six minutes passed, the length of the Florida shooter's rampage. In the hush, Ms.
Soriano was reliving in her mind that day in 2012, second by second, thinking of Joseph.
Now, he's running away, she thought. Now, he's in the bathroom. Tears rolled down her
cheeks and she pulled her children close.
Back on board the bus rolling north to Connecticut, the Sorianos were tired and exhilarated
and hopeful. "I am amazed at how these kids got up and spoke and were so raw and real and
emotional," Ms. Soriano said. "If people don't hear them, then something is wrong with this
country."
Sophia swore she would never throw away the sign she had carried at the march. "I've never
experienced anything like that," she said. "It was really empowering. I said what I needed to
say." Asked which part of the day he liked best, Joseph just grinned. "Everything," he said.
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IR IE 11„Xn:. i,) °r 'ir iww i s s„ro IR
In Newtown, Conn., one man's journey out of America's gun culture
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