March For Our Lives Event For Gun Reform June 11 In Florida

FLORIDA — Supporters of March for Our Lives, founded in 2018 by survivors of the Parkland, Florida, high school massacre, are bringing their demonstration in support of gun law reform back to the nation’s capital Saturday, June 11.

Hundreds of sister marches will be held in cities across America, including more than a dozen in the Sunshine State.

March for Our Lives events will take place in the following cities in Florida on these dates and times:

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• Plaza Ferdinand, East Government St And, S Palafox St, Pensacola, FL 32502

Saturday, June 11, 2022 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

• Tallahassee capital, Tallahassee, FL 32304

Saturday, June 11, 2022 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

• Castillo de San Marcus Fort, 1 S Castillo Dr, Saint Augustine, FL 32084

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• Depot Park, Gainesville, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

• Wadsworth Park, 2200 Moody Blvd, Flagler Beach, FL 32136

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

• Intersection of State 40 and US Route 441, Ocala, FL 34482

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• Corner of US 1 & Dunlawton Ave., US1 & Dunlawton, Port Orange, FL 32127

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• Courthouse Main Street, Inverness, FL 34450

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• March For Our Lives St Pete, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• US-441 in front of Lake-Sumter College, 9501 US-441, Leesburg, FL 34788

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

• Orlando City Hall, 400 S Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32801

Saturday, June 11, 2022 12 p.m. - 3 p.m.

• West Melbourne Community Park, 3000 Minton Rd, Melbourne, FL 32904

Saturday, June 11, 2022 12 p.m. - 4p.m.

• George E. Edgecomb Courthouse, 800 E Twiggs St, Tampa, FL 33602

Saturday, June 11, 2022 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.

• Tampa area, 601 STARKEY Rd # 10, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• Downtown Sarasota, Sarasota, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 p.m. - 12 p.m.

• Democratic Headquarters, 4216 Sebring Pkwy, Sebring, FL 33870

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• Roosevelt Bridge, FEDERAL Hwy, Jensen Beach, FL 34957

Saturday, June 11, 2022 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.

• Babcock Ranch Founders Square, Babcock Ranch, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

• 7675 Trapani Ln, Boynton Beach, FL 33472

Saturday, June 11, 2022 11 p.m. - 12 p.m.

• Fort Myers, 2120 Main St, Fort Myers, FL 33901

Saturday, June 11, 2022 9 p.m. - 12 p.m.

• Pine Trails Park, Parkland, FL

Saturday, June 11, 2022 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

• Weston Regional Park, 20200 Saddle Club Rd, Weston, FL 33327

Saturday, June 11, 2022 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

• Coral Gables City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way Fl, Coral Gables, FL 33134

Saturday, June 11, 2022 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.

• Coral Reef Park, 7895 SW 152nd St, Palmetto Bay, FL 33157

Saturday, June 11, 2022 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.

• TBD, Key West, FL 33040

The demonstrations come after the latest school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 that resulted in a profound loss of lives.

Nineteen children between the ages of 9 and 11, and two of their teachers, were killed inside a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary as law enforcement officers waited for more than an hour outside, according to reports. Justice Department investigators are expected to focus their probe on police response to the shooting.

March for Our Lives organizers’ immediate goal is to pressure elected officials to “step up and pass universal background checks” in the U.S. Senate. The House approved a bipartisan background check bill in 2019, but it has since languished in the Senate.

“No more time. It’s time Democrats, Republicans, gun owners and non-gun owners come together and stop focusing on what we can’t agree on and start focusing on what we can even if small,” activist David Hogg said on Twitter. Hogg was 17 in 2018 when 14 of his fellow students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed by an 18-year-old gunman with an assault-style weapon.

“We’re doing another march on June 11 sign up here and help us make this time different,” he continued, alluding to previous times when gun law reforms failed to materialize from national outrage over a mass shooting.

Following the school shooting in Uvalde, former Florida governor, now Republican Sen. Rick Scott, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the Luke and Alex School Safety Act, a bill that would create a federal clearinghouse on school safety best practices to help schools and their faculty, parents and community officials identify school safety measures and resources for implementing them.

"We’ll never be able to prevent every vicious crime, but we can and must act. There are solutions to be found at the state level, and the federal level – and today we can take action in the Senate to make our schools safer," Scott said.

"I want to thank Senator Johnson for leading this bill, and Senator Rubio for his strong support of this legislation and other efforts to keep our kids safe. This bill – the Luke and Alex School Safety Act – is named in honor of Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter. Luke and Alex were taken from us in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 in Parkland," he added.

According to WPBF-TV, Scott told reporters that he does not support, however, a ban on AR-15s, the type of weapon the gunman reportedly used in Uvalde.

Meanwhile, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick along with Rep. Lois Frankel — both Florida Democrats — agree that universal background checks for gun purchases and expanded mental health services are part of the solution, the TV station reported.

In a prime-time address Thursday, President Joe Biden outlined a far more ambitious and politically difficult proposal that includes expanded background checks. He also called for the restoration of a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, one he helped pass as a senator in 1994 and that Congress allowed to sunset in 2004.

Failing that, Congress should at least find a way to keep those military-style weapons out of the hands of those with mental health issues, or raise the minimum age to buy them from 18 to 21, Biden said.

• Related: ‘How Much More Carnage?’ Biden Asks In Appeal For Tougher Gun Laws

“How much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden said. “Don’t tell me raising the age won’t make a difference.”

He called on Congress to end "outrageous" protections for gun manufacturers, which severely limit their liability over how their firearms are used, comparing it to the tobacco industry, which has faced repeated litigation over its products' role in causing cancer and other diseases.

"Imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued, where we'd be today," Biden said.

If Congress doesn’t act, voters should show their outrage and turn gun control into a bellwether issue in November’s midterm elections, Biden said.

A secondary goal for March for Our Lives organizers is to push young voters to the polls in the November midterm elections, a strategy that worked in the 2018 midterms. Its 2018 march, held just over a month after the Parkland massacre when anti-gun fervor was high, fueled a 47 percent increase in young voter turnout from the 2014 midterms.

• You May Also Like: ‘You Would All Be Dead’: Kid Tells Adults How To Avoid Shooter (Video)

It was the highest youth vote turnout ever, increasing in every state, according to a Tufts University analysis. In a first, Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-reform lobbying group backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, outspent the National Rifle Association in federal elections, according to The Trace, a news organization that investigates gun violence.

More than two dozen NRA-backed candidates lost their House seats, and the new Democratic majority included at least 17 newly elected representatives who favor stricter gun laws, according to CNBC.

March for Our Lives said voters made clear in 2018 “the status quo was no longer acceptable” by kicking a record number of NRA-backed candidates out of federal and state policymaking offices.

The Uvalde school shooting was the 27th of 2022, according to Education Week, an independent news organization that covers K-12 education and has been tracking school shootings since 2018. In that time, 88 people have been killed and 229 others have been injured in 119 school shootings.

Gun violence overall has spiked to the point that it’s a public health crisis, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which earlier this year reported a near-record-high number of gun-related deaths in the United States in 2020.

An analysis of that data shows firearms were the leading cause of death among children for the first time in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.