from Jamie Raskin, Congressmember from MD's 8th

Friends:

I spoke today to over 800 students from BCC, Einstein, Richard Montgomery, Northwood, Wootton and Blair who flooded Capitol Hill to demand reasonable gun safety reform now, and I cannot tell you how moved and inspired I am by their protest and their determination to change America.

My Dad used to say that, when everything looks hopeless, you must be the hope, and in the wake of the savage massacre of 17 students and teachers and staff at point blank range in Parkland, Florida, America’s high school students have become the hope.

We must stand with their movement, march with them and help them organize to defeat the NRA in Congress and in every state legislature across America.

Please join me and dozens of other Members of Congress on Saturday, March 24 at the “March for Our Lives” in D.C. with thousands of Maryland high school students and Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg and all the grieving young people coming up from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP. This march can be—it must be—an historic turning point in the struggle to end America's outlier status as a country where mass killings take place routinely in schools, churches, movie theaters, concerts, and other public places.

As with the Women's March last year, I'm inviting all 8th District friends and families—from Montgomery, Frederick, and Carroll Counties and beyond—to assemble at the Silver Spring Civic Building at 9:00 AM, for a pre-March Rally with soul-lifting music, high school a capella groups, and a dazzling and growing coalition of local activist groups, including Moms Demand Action, MoCo Women, the Women’s Democratic Club, Do the Most Good, and Our Revolution, which graciously offered us the space which they had reserved for a conference they’re rescheduling. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP. We’ll also be joined by a big contingent of elected officials and candidates!

We will then transport everyone down to the rally by bus. More details on times coming soon. . .

We are in the fight of our lives. We must force a vote in Congress on a universal criminal background check, on authorizing the Center for Disease Control to monitor gun violence as a public health epidemic, and on banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines--all common-sense measures we have adopted in Maryland that have been upheld as consistent with the Second Amendment. And we must organize to defeat the NRA and the politicians in their back pocket who have made sure with their obstructionism that mass murderers have an easier time buying weapons of mass murder here than in almost any other country on earth.

Please sign up here to join us on Saturday, March 24. We are asking adults to contribute $20 (or more) per seat to pay for the buses but all students will ride for free!



All best,

Jamie

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