Photo credit: Jo Freeman
Twenty thousand people rallied on the DC Mall on June 12 to denounce gun violence.
Organized by March for Our Lives, there were major rallies all over the country, in contrast to one very large national rally by this group in 2018.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser was one of many speakers in the two-hour rally.
Printed signs were passed out, but most people brought their own.
On the northeast corner of the Mall, at Constitution and 15th Streets, was a display of 40,000 white plastic flowers representing the lives lost to gun violence in 2019. Vases with 6,000 orange flowers represented the increase in 2020.
The display was “planted” on June 7 by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, joined by several other M.Cs. Giffords was seriously wounded by a shooter at a constituent meeting in her Arizona district on Jan. 8, 2011. She resigned her office a year later to become a gun control advocate.
Many of the signs in the flower display were aimed at the Republican Party, especially at Mitch McConnell.
Jo Freeman is a feminist scholar and author.
Copyright ©2022 Jo Freeman.
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