Nearly a thousand people carried signs advocating against gun violence and expressing the need for gun reform as they marched Saturday in Moscow from Friendship Square to East City Park as part of the nationwide March For Our Lives rally.
The march, which drew about 950 people in Moscow, is part of a national movement organized by students who are calling for action to stop mass school shootings in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida where 17 students and teachers were shot and killed Feb. 14.
A panel of guest speakers - all of them students - addressed a crowd with hail occasionally falling.
One speaker, Alden Duff, a fourth-grader at Jefferson Elementary School in Pullman, organized a walk-out at his school last week, but it was later canceled by school administrators.
Duff used the march as a platform to speak his mind.
He said he wants to promote commonsense gun laws and he called for a ban on assault weapons and semi-automatic rifles.
“I’m not against you owning a gun for hunting, but people don’t need assault weapons and semi-automatic weapons to go hunting,” Duff said. “People are coming to our schools with these guns and killing people and that needs to stop.”
Moscow League of Women Voters Co-President Susan Ripley said her organization is in support of any policy to make schools and spaces where children congregate safer.
Ripley said one of the ways her organization supports young people is by making sure they’re registered to vote when they come of age. She said the young speakers presenting to the crowd, like Duff, were particularly inspiring.
“That’s our future and we’ve got to support students like that,” Ripley said. “This is the beginning of what I hope will be a positive movement.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry said there were some people “shouting” occasionally, but there was no counterprotest and the entire event was peaceful.
Complete coverage of the march will be provided in Monday’s edition of the Daily News.
