March For Our Lives draws vocal support

A crowd of at least 150 people joined in vehement support of Lewiston's March For Our Lives rally Saturday.

The group of mostly adults held up signs and listened to numerous speakers at the rally advocating for "common-sense gun laws" as part of a nationwide movement initially organized by the surviving students from a shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school on Valentine's Day, in which 17 people were killed.

Seven speakers addressed the crowd at Brackenbury Square, including educators, students at Lewiston High School and Lewis-Clark State College, and a licensed firearms auctioneer. The speakers' calls for increased background checks, greater spending on mental health care and rollback or banning of semi-automatic assault-style firearms, drew affirming shouts from the crowd.

Lewiston's rally was organized by a local chapter of Moms Demand Action, a national group formed following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.

Local organizer Amanda Gill said the event is not a cry to ban firearms or take away guns. Gill said the event is designed to create a dialogue and advocate for stronger gun control laws. She said most of the vitriol about holding the event has come from nasty comments relegated to online trolling, but for the most part she said she's received compliments and praise.

"It's exciting to see the community rally around us," she said. "We want to be heard. This is not an anti-gun event. We live in a rural area, in a hunting and sportsmen's state, and nobody wants to stop that. We just want to make sure responsible gun ownership is at the forefront."

Very few detractors protested the event and only one man said he was there to "educate the children" on the constitution and protect Second Amendment rights. Kevin O. Thomason was handing out pocket constitutions and said he disagreed with the organizers "using dead children to spread their bologna."

"I'm down here basically for the children to hopefully educate them, to keep them free," he said. "Everybody has been really friendly for the most part we live in a good area; I'm sorry to see the children being used this way, but I'm here to do my thing."

A couple hours after the rally at Brackenbury Square, 12 people stood on the Nez Perce County Courthouse sidewalk to support the Second Amendment. Mike Dietz, clad in camouflage, held a sign saying "American Bolshevics want your guns," misspelling Bolsheviks but referring to the former socialist party that revolted in Russia in 1917, later becoming the Communist party. Dietz said he put up fliers for the event, but later saw some ripped down.

"We have a situation where we're having a national debate where one side is getting pushed out," Dietz said.

Several cars driving by honked seemingly in support of the protesters, several of whom were openly carrying handguns, and only one driver was heard yelling out an expletive.

"What we've got with the students here is a mobocracy (rule by the masses), and they're overthrowing the rule of law in that way," Dietz said. "We haven't even seen the proof from these school shootings; we're still waiting for the proof from Sandy Hook."

The school shooting in which 20 children were killed in Newtown, Conn., has been well documented and meticulously investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies, documentarians and journalists.

The Moscow March For Our Lives walk from Friendship Square to East City Park garnered between 900 and 1,000 people Saturday afternoon. University of Idaho English student Mia Giglio joined in the march and said "gun violence is an epidemic."

"When there was one case of Ebola outside of our borders, we jumped into action. That's what we consider an epidemic," she said. "But thousands upon thousands of lives later, we're still sitting here, clutching our guns to our chests with trigger happy fingers."

Back in Lewiston, Cameron Hinman said he is a gun owner and avid hunter. He attended the Brackenbury rally to show support in limiting access to assault-style weapons.

"I've been a hunter for years, and there's no place for semi-automatic weapons in the hands of a hunter," Hinman said.

Ray Schnedler, of Lewiston, was walking by the rally on his way to the Lewiston City Library and decided to drop in and show his support for the movement.

"I think it's great that these people are standing up and speaking from the heart," he said. "This debate can often get stuck in the politicization and fear, but this is where you get the real input, from real people."

Gracyn Richardson, a Lewiston High School student and writer for the student newspaper Bengal's Purr, spoke to the crowd about her feelings when taught at school to cower and hide if a shooter enters the school. Richardson said locally she saw angry comments online from people "degrading students as stupid" at the walkout staged by young people earlier this month.

"Well, I'm in history class where I learned about the civil rights movement and the people that stood up for what's right, just like what we're doing," Richardson said. "A man commented back to me 'That's no way to speak to an adult.' Well, there are plenty of voices who don't get to speak or are forgotten after more and more shots."

Richardson called for stronger background checks and keeping assault-style weapons out of the hands of ordinary citizens.

"They blame the victims or say we should have noticed the signs; well, it doesn't matter if you're just screaming it at their graves," Richardson said. "Hopefully, something will finally change. We can stand together so that your children don't have to be worried about hearing another shot at their school. So that one day my children don't have to live in fear."

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Holm may be contacted at (208) 848-2275 or holm@lmtribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomHolm4