March For Our Lives, a student-led movement to demand action on gun safety, returns to the Bay Area this Saturday with protests planned at several locations around the region and more than 450 nationwide.
The Oakland march at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 10 a.m. is being organized by a group of middle schoolers, including 11-year-old Alex Ibarra of Coliseum College Prep Academy.
“After hearing about the shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, I knew I had to do something about it,” Ibarra said. “Me and my friends planned a protest in Oakland to tell Congress to pass gun laws and stop innocent people from dying.”
Ibarra and his friends reached out to March For Our Lives, a group founded by survivors from the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Four years ago, the group planned the first March For Our Lives, which more than 1.7 million people participated in, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit organization.
After spending the past four years registering youth voters and lobbying politicians for gun reform, the group is back organizing a march on the nation’s capital and facilitating marches across the country Saturday.
“First, we reached out to March For Our Lives and they agreed to support us,” Ibarra said. “Then we wrote to different city councilmembers in Oakland to plan the logistics of the protest.”
The protest in Oakland will include speeches from students and survivors of gun violence about their experiences and how mass shootings have affected them and their communities. The gathering will also have letter writing for attendees to write to Congress demanding action and poster making booths.
“Most importantly, we’re all going to bring an extra pair of shoes with us to represent the victims of gun violence,” Ibarra said, adding that he encourages students, parents, teachers, and other community members to come out and support the march.
“It will really strengthen our message and convey to Congress that we need change,” he said.
Ibarra and his friends have joined forces with organizers in San Leandro for the march. They are also working closely with Oakland City Councilmember at-large and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and her staff.
“There have been 250 mass shootings in the United States in 2022, that is more mass shootings than days in the year so far. Since 2020 the highest mortality rates among youth have been due to gun violence,” Kaplan said in a press release Thursday.
“I join our community, especially our youth leaders, in calling on Congress to take immediate action to impose common sense gun control laws, including universal background checks and controls on assault weapons. In a country where the Republican-controlled Court and Senate refuses to regulate guns but they seek to regulate uteruses, they have no right to call themselves pro-life,” Kaplan said.
Other March For Our Lives protests are scheduled to take place Saturday in San Francisco, Mountain View, Redwood City, Walnut Creek, Benicia, Burlingame, Pacifica, and Sonoma.
And I am sure his parents had nothing to do with this kids involvement in the March. *wink wink*
How bout we teach gun safety.
How bout we address mental illness.
How bout we address the root cause, and not just the results of failing to do so.
We could learn a lot from other countries in those areas …
And yes. None of those are questions because our leadership will not answer them … they just want control.
Most other countries have more strict gun laws than the good Ole USA so the kids are on the right track.🤷♂️
We could address mental illness but trumps administration pulled medical funding to fund other personal interest remember?
People want answers but don’t want to pay the price to do what is right.
@parent +1
Sounds like another child activist from “the other side of the pond…”
If that is the case, how come the Biden administration hasn’t address this problem and done something about this. It’s easy to deflect and ignore the root of the problem.
@Glen223….Yeah, where is Greta?…always good for a laugh.
@Redeye
What medical funding did Trump pull? Are you talking about money taken from the covid fund so he could get Operation Warp Speed (vaccines) going? His administration did something like that, so why are you trying to blame him? I’d also be willing to bet that you don’t have a clue as to what the good Ole USA’s gun laws even are, as they vary from state to state.
Redeye
Please travel more. Yes some countries have different gun laws … but more strict? Some do …. But not all.
I will pay a price to do what is right, but taking guns is not right.
And what money did trump pull? I will wait for sources ….
Yada, yada, yada….and furthermore….yada, yada, yada.
Seems legit, in a time where we defund police, tie their hands from actually doing their job, crime at an all time high, homeless population increasing daily, our voting system a joke, and we’ve got an elderly inept man being manipulated by God only knows who, and they want us to give up our protection.
The term “Smoking Crack” has never been more true than today. You want them, come try and take em. American’s are done, fed up, and pushed to the edge with this progressive liberal communism crap. Time to stand up and be heard. Time to let them know that the “silent majority” be known out numbers them 100-1.
You know how we got here? Because YOU were too afraid of saying anything reality based because you were afraid of being cancelled. You didn’t speak up to your neighbors, friends, in fear of being called a conspiracy person. Well guess what. It’s time to speak up, and loud. Bad things happen when good men do nothing.
Go make some waves, speak up, and start saying enough is enough. Otherwise, your boys are going to be wearing dresses in kindergarten next year dancing with the drag queens, to more neon signs that say “It won’t lick itself” (yes, this happened)
And this is why we don’t let kids make decisions about their gender.
We don’t listen to kids. They don’t know enough about anything. Sounds like he was groomed.
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Im sure this 11-year old is a Constitutional expert.
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And Greta Thunberg is a highly regarded economist.
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Teach gun safety in the schools!,!
Lol, so another Greta Thunberg or David Hogg??
But the youth have never been used by the Elite for an Agenda though, Right?
If they aren’t old enough to vote = they should be riding bicycles and playing minecraft. These adults need to Stop stealing these children’s childhoods for their agendas.
Libby and Rebecca need to mind their own business and keep out of WC and Contra Costa politics. They need to fix their own city before preaching their ideology onto others. Most of all they need to clean up all the trash and get a working police force reassembled. Why do these radical Marxist politicians always stir up trouble and protests but never fix their problems. WC council needs to go on a field trip to Oakland. The assignment is to take Bart and then a public bus around the city and then go for a walk down a blind alley or two. Go to an atm. Let them experience the joy of living in Oakland before they bring it permanently to WC.
An 11 year old organizing this event. Come on man. The 11 year old is Mom and Dads puppet.
Nice try kid. I doubt this will make any impact on the gun violence affecting the Oakland community. Accept that criminals in oakland don’t have nothing going for themselves but being low life’s and that childish hang banging. Regardless of any gun laws, I’m sure there are people in oakland making P80 guns. I think If you’re passionate about making a statement, don’t March at frank ogawa plaza, instead March in the areas that are affected by gun violence
Let’s say we ban assault weapons. Then some evil lunatic shoots up a school with a semi automatic pistol so we ban them. Then some evil lunatic shoots up a school with a pump shotgun? So we ban them. The democrat politicians will never admit that gun control doesn’t stop evil people from committing crimes. There goal is to disarm law abiding citizens and they use these horrible school killings to push their political agenda.
Absolutely spot on Pepe and Commonsensenor above called it as well.
The gun grabbers agenda is not about safety, it’s about disarming the people so we are unable to resist the tyranny that is being brought upon our nation at a rapid pace. They label rifles that use 22mm bullets as assault weapons to make it sound scary and aid the push for total control. Resist the agenda or suffer the dire consequences. America is in deep trouble.
Another spot on here from RB. It’s good to know there are others out there thinking the same thing.
@RB….22 mm=.86 caliber= +4/5ths of an inch….now THAT’S a bullet!
In each case of of these mass murders, there was ample evidence of prescription drug use. The PhD dispensing these drugs was well aware of the unstable individual. How about Drug control? With Big Pharma being made the target for monetary restitution.
Also, the city elders should be held responsible for holding the police back from protecting law abiding citizens. In this case, children were exposed to grave danger because of management. This is not a gun control issue.
I think you are confusing a psychologist with a psychiatrist, A psychologist cannot legally write a prescription. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who is allowed by law to write a prescription.
Yes. A psychiatrist dispensed the drug. Perhaps the word dispense is questionable. Writes the prescription.
Ain’t it funny how these kid’s crusades always correspond with the current media narrative? Never will you see coverage of a kid’s anti-war campaign when the arm dealers are making a boatload of money in Ukraine.
Let’s ban matches and arson will cease.
So, the Oakland City Councilmember at-large and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan stated “In a country where the Republican-controlled Court and Senate refuses to regulate guns but they seek to regulate uteruses, they have no right to call themselves pro-life.” The next Cortez…. Nice to know the Republicans control the Senate… also nice to know they seek to regulate uteruses. First, an astounding misunderstanding on the Roe v Wade opinion, but not unsurprising. The Democrats have done probably billions on that in fundraising. Also, guns are regulated, certainly at a state level here. What this dullard means by regulated is banned. Neither party would try that, and again, dems use it a s a fundraising tool. The SCOTUS would opine that any such “regulation” would be un-Constitutional, as they did even when it was not a “Republican” court. I guess this is what happens when voter turnout, even in a mail in ballot system, is less than 20%, or is it because of dullards like her on the ballot why turnout is so low, nobody worth voting for.
According to Oakland’s Vice Mayor, “There have been 250 mass shootings in the United States in 2022, that is more mass shootings than days in the year so far”.
VM Kaplan,
Please provide a list of the 250 mass shootings in the US in 2022 . Also, include your definition of a mass shooting. Thank you.
She’s just another lying/incompetent politician who has no idea what she’s talking about.
No interest in the facts.
The only way the number could possibly get that high is to include gang violence, which happens daily. Of course that doesn’t fit the narrative.
There is 364/365days that make-up a year. Now, where did village-idiot Kaplan derive that the 250 killings outnumber days of the year???!! Barbara Lee, Swalwell, etc. are in the same kayak!!
Having raised and taught more than a few 11 year old kids, “me and my friends” (sic) think he’s been groomed and rewarded for performance for the last 10 years. Show us your new molars, sonny.
Good job young man! Wish him best of luck and I think the group might get some result because even some gun owners support stricter gun control.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/06/1103252636/many-gun-owners-are-hesitant-to-express-support-for-stricter-gun-control-measure
There is only one thing that’ll stop gun violence and that’s stop and frisk. If you think otherwise you are dreaming. These marches have been going on forever and do nothing. No amount of gun control will do anything. They are just an exercise in futility.
Look at it this way. The courts stop stop and frisk became it discriminates against Blacks. So who gets killed because of that Blacks by the hundreds. Maybe the thousands. Do you see how common sense is has left the country.?
“BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY”
There is no depth to which the Left will not sink in order to achieve their
new-world-order agenda, where everything is controlled by the govt. They will even try to turn your children against you.
We make it easier by sending our children to govt controlled schools where leftist “teachers” who are sympathetic to “the cause” will begin the indoctrination.
Sadly, children are susceptible to the propaganda and a new generation of Leftists is created. Prove me wrong.
Remember this every time you vote.
If everyone had a gun the shootings would stop.
That is especially stupid.
Kids are afraid of dying. I don’t blame them.
Gun control is not taking guns away. Only drama queens say that.
But no one needs an AR-15, AK47, etc.
@ Doh….. There it is, “etc.” …… about that…..
Next it will be any semi auto rifle, then ban those deadly shotguns, then all the handguns, bolt action & single shot rifles…. too powerful and accurate …. nobody needs a .22 rimfire!
There’s no end to you guys, we already know that!
Etc. ? Are you joking?
Doh: Actions have consequences, and the Democrat party’s tactics of lying, breathtaking dishonesty and misuse of police and political powers completely eliminated any trust we should have in any assurances they want limited anything. Shirley you must be joking.
“No one needs….”
Doh – do you know incredibly stupid you sound?? The gun control people ARE wanting to ban firearms. How can you be so damn blind????
Don’t ever tell ANYONE what they “need.”
You don’t need a car. You don’t need shoes.
“But no one needs an AR-15, AK47, etc.”
You’re right, I don’t need it. But I am going to keep it for when the day arises that I DO need it.
Protests just keep people busy and disturb cities, they don’t do much for the cause. Biden is busy laughing at us.
Just hope these protests stay peaceful, the last thing we need is a reprise of last summer’s looting and crime. The irony of a march to end gun violence turning violent…
If, in 2020, everyone in America had died from gun murder at the white rate, there would have been only 6,570 gun homicides rather than 19,384, or a drop of 65 percent. Blacks accounted for 12,048 of these deaths, even though blacks were only 14 percent of the population.
…566 blacks who killed whites (including Hispanics), but only 246 whites and Hispanics who killed blacks. Since there are about 6-1/2 times as many whites and Hispanics as black, it means a black person is more likely to kill a white or a Hispanic by a shockingly high multiple.
https://www.amren.com/videos/2022/06/we-dont-have-a-gun-problem-we-have-a-race-problem/
Perhaps they should educate the students on what laws are not ENFORCED!
Review criminal arrests data vs people charged. Review cases where the person wasn’t charged, after being arrested.
And cite some local cases as an example…
and even Becton’s record of NOT charging after arrest…
Wait, all we have to do is protest, and tell congress to do something? Problem solved y’all. These kids figured it out.
… and with the protests… His “sponsors/trainers/indoctrinators” will (each and all) need to raise funds to have him travel the world (much like Gretta and her team) I see Foundations, Grant Applications, Go Fund Me, and a dozen other $$ makers in this kid’s future.
“Most importantly, we’re all going to bring an extra pair of shoes with us to represent the victims of gun violence”
Geez! It takes an 11year old kid to figure out a bold course of action to alleviate gun violence problems?
Why didn’t Congress think of that?
None of this locking up armed gang members or enforcing laws already on the books… nope! Kid dives right into the obvious solution…. take your other pair of shoes out for some fresh air.
Friggin brilliant.
Most schools in Walnut Creek are wide open. You can walk on campus in from several sides. I worked at the French School in Berkeley, we had a ten foot fence, locked buzz in doors. Felt safe. Berkeley High had had metal detectors and a guard since my brother went there. Be smart, protect the schools, at least fence them in.
Let’s just say I drive by the walnut creek rally and took a picture the attendance was not impressive to say the least. There was a Hello Kitty Food truck event about the same time and he amount of people that wait in line for the did truck had way more people than the gun control rally. So these rally can’t even beat a food truck for attendance.
Under 400 kids died in the last 100 years from school shootings.
Jeez, we better burn our constitution and give a complete monopoly on violence to Biden’s government.
Not enough kids died from school shooting was not on my Claycord Bingo card.
How many dead kids will it take for you to actually be concerned?
Molon Labe. From my cold, dead hands…….