March For Our Lives Rally To Protest Gun Violence In Downtown Nashua

NASHUA, NH — Protesters will gather in Nashua and across the country on Saturday for the March For Our Lives protest to demonstrate the need to reform gun laws in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.

The March For Our Lives organization is a youth-led movement created by survivors of the Parkland shooting in 2018. Student advocates at Nashua High School have organized the protest in conjunction with the organization's string of demonstrations happening across the country on Saturday. The Nashua protest will occur on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Protesters will march for 30 minutes and end at Greeley Park, where students and local politicians will give speeches. This is the only March For Our Lives protest happening in New Hampshire, and students from across the state are expected to participate.

Aarika Roy, a junior at Nashua High School North, is one of the rally's main organizers, along with other Nashua High North and South students Addie Herbert, Hunter Porter, Dante Castellano and Taylor Barry. Roy became involved in protesting and organizing actions when she was in middle school after attending the March For Our Lives protests in 2018.

“We wanted to show as students we feel unsafe and want to get our voices heard,” Roy told Patch. “We are making efforts to stop this [gun violence] for the next generation.”

Roy and her fellow students hope the protest will pressure state legislators to enact stricter gun laws, a challenge as New Hampshire's Senate and House are controlled by a Republican majority. New Hampshire's Republican Governor Chris Sununu has also publicly stated he will not update the state's gun laws in the wake of Uvalde. Furthermore, New Hampshire has some of the loosest gun laws in New England and the country. Currently, residents are not required to complete a background check; there are no conceal and carry laws and assault weapons or high-capacity magazine restrictions.

The last piece of gun legislation passed in New Hampshire was in 2017; the bill eliminated the need for a permit to conceal and carry a firearm. State Democrats proposed several gun safety bills in 2019, which Sununu vetoed.