Protesters across U.S. and Texas join March for Our Lives rallies against gun violence

by Joshua Fechter and Sewell Chan, Texas Tribune


FORT WORTH — Standing outside of the Tarrant County Courthouse on Saturday in 100-degree heat, a pair of mothers compared notes on whether to add a new item to their children’s school supply lists next year: bulletproof backpacks.

Elizabeth Brown, a veterinarian, said she started shopping online for such backpacks for her three children, ages 4, 10 and 12. She saw one that cost $200 each. Jamie Martin, a high school chemistry teacher, said she saw one for $150 that she considered for her 8-year-old daughter.

Both mothers doubted whether the backpacks could stand up to a round from an AR-15 — the weapon used by the gunman who killed 19 students and two educators at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24. They said they were exasperated by the thought of having to equip their children to survive an encounter with a gunman in the halls of their school — and despaired that 23 years after the Columbine High School massacre, school shootings and active-shooter drills have become routine.

They were among tens of thousands of protesters who marched on the Mall in Washington and in cities across the United States and Texas in a nationwide demonstration convened by March for Our Lives, the political movement created after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018. Saturday's protests were a sequel to demonstrations held on March 24, 2018.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/11/march-for-our-lives-gun-violence-uvalde/