March For Our Lives: Crowds Protest Gun Violence In Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mia Tretta was laughing with her best friend at school when she heard the first bang. She realized she was shot and ran to nearby classrooms for help.

"If you think that it is hard going back to school after a bad hair day, or you said something embarrassing in front of your peers, or you bombed a test — imagine going back after you've been shot. Or for me, anywhere else — like a crowded place where a loud pop can instantly transport me back to the quad, running for my life," Tretta said.

A crowd of hundreds listened with bated breath as Tretta's story boomed throughout City Hall Park on Saturday afternoon. Tretta, 17, was one of five people shot at Saugus High School in 2019. Her best friend, Dominic Blackwell, was one of two shot dead.

Tretta and many others told their personal experiences with gun violence at a rally organized by March for Our Lives, a youth-led movement to eliminate gun violence. The movement was created after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.

Just four years ago, tens of thousands of Angelenos filled the streets with of downtown Los Angeles to protest gun violence after the 2018 shooting in Parkland.

Saturday's rally in Los Angeles was one of over 450 March for Our Lives events planned across the world over the weekend. Multiple events were held in the greater Los Angeles area including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Encino and Burbank. (Organizers said Monday they estimated at least 8,000 people attended the march in downtown Los Angeles.)

Before marching through downtown Los Angeles, the crowd heard from a range of people, a number of whom had experienced school shootings. Among others, organizer C. Heis discussed how access to guns affects suicide rates, particularly among trans youth.

Jeffrey Birnbaum, a pediatric emergency physician at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, shared his experience treating gunshot wounds.

Birnbaum told the crowd how physicians normally treat gunshot wounds, which can often be difficult to find. But that training goes out the window with AR-15 wounds, he said. He said he remembered feeling shocked when he saw his first patients with such wounds.

"The images of their injuries will be forever burned into my mind. I vividly remember thinking that no one should be able to inflict these types of injuries on a fellow human being," Birnbaum said. "It looked as if someone took an iron fist and punched 2-3-inch holes throughout their bodies. Our collective trauma team can do a lot of amazing things, but we can't fix injuries like that."

The 2018 March for Our Lives demonstration felt more hopeful, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker told the crowd. But there is an important place for anger and disappointment, Tretta said.

"People always ask me, 'What can I do to help?' And here's my answer: If you've had enough, act like you've had enough," Tretta said. "The next time you drop your kids off at school, wondering if they might be the next American statistic in the gun violence epidemic, let that anxiety turn into anger. Take that anger to the polls with you in November."

Voting and Policy Demands

Young people and politicians are caught in a "cycle of disengagement," Voters of Tomorrow Executive Director Santiago Mayer said. Politicians don't pay attention to young people because young people don't vote — and young people don't vote because they don't feel heard.

And for youngest voting Americans, turning in a ballot isn't always enough. Politicians are quick to dismiss young voters as naive, March for Our Lives organizer Marianna Pecora said. This is particularly frustrating given how clearly organizers have articulated their demands, Pecora said. The demands include near-universal background checks, an increase in the minimum age for gun possession and a ban on assault weapons.

Perceived naivete is compounded by young voters' lack of funding and lobbying power, Heis said.

A group of senators on Sunday announced they had reached a bipartisan deal in response to last month's shootings, but the deal largely fell short of March for Our Lives' demands, according to The Associated Press.

The deal, which lawmakers hope will become law this month, will make juvenile records available for background checks for buyers under 21. The deal will help states enact "red flag" laws and will increase funding for school safety and mental health programs, the Associated Press reported. The agreement also would bar domestic abusers from having guns.

"In the week leading up to yesterday’s march, we brought hundreds of youth lobbyists to DC. They met with over 70 representatives in Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to discuss the youth experience of gun violence and the need for lifesaving legislation. Our advocacy worked," March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg said in a message to participants Sunday.

Despite clear frustration, days such as Saturday are heartening, Pecora said. Saturday proved that people do care about youth fighting for safer schools — even if it politicians don't, Pecora said.

"I am leaving today more hopeful than I came," Pecora said.