Tens of thousands of people in Massachusetts participated in the March for Our Lives on Saturday, rallying on the Boston Common against gun violence and for stronger gun control laws. The protesters were energized and determined, but we've also been here before.
The 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School galvanized national attention on restricting access to assault rifles and large-capacity magazines, only to see the issue fizzle out in Congress. At one point, gun control advocates lamented that if Sandy Hook couldn't spur action, nothing would.
A group of students at Boston University have been thinking a lot about this problem. Jami Rubin and Samantha West are both juniors and graphic design majors. Jami is also a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Both participated in the women's march, and both thought the momentum and celebration of that day didn't really go anywhere. So they came up with an idea for the March For Our Lives: They would make signs that could be folded into pocket-sized booklets for after the rally, to give people information and direction on what to do next.
"Information on American gun violence statistics, NRA contributions statistics, and how to contact your representative with a phone script," Rubin said, describing some of the resources included. Perhaps most importantly, the booklets include information on how to register to vote.
"Honestly, I don't know which way it will go," Patty Nolan says of the March For Our Lives movement. Nolan is a longtime member of Cambridge's school committee, and she's been watching the youth-led activism with cautious optimism. "I am hoping very much that it will be a movement, not a moment." Nolan says she is heartened to see the movement's inclusiveness, and the fact that the students in Parkland have made a conscious effort to make this about not just school shootings, but all forms of gun violence that affect young people.
"It feels like it has tapped into a populous across this country who has felt really not listened to and not heard, and really not able to effect change," Nolan says.
Tomiko Brown-Nagin is a professor of history and law at Harvard University who studies social movements. She agrees that this march feels like it could lead to real change. She says timing is critical, citing examples like the Civil Rights Movement, and protests of the Vietnam War, which had power in part because of their timing. This movement, she notes, is happening in the run-up to the midterm elections.
"The midterm elections give people the opportunity to express their disdain for what some believe is political indifference to the problem of violence by handguns and by assault weapons," Brown-Nagin says.
As for Rubin and West, they aren’t exactly sure what’s next for their project, but they’re determined not to lose momentum.
