Tommy Murray, 16, was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown when a gunman killed 26 people in the school. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Several hundred people protested the National Rifle Association convention being held at the Dallas Convention Center at The Students March that took place in the morning on Saturday, May 5 at Dallas City Hall Plaza.
Tommy Murray, 16, spoke about having been a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 20 children ages six and seven and six adult staff were murdered by a gunman. Murray said his neighbor was the shooter.
Nothing happened after Newtown. No laws were changed, but there were lots of meaningless “thoughts and prayers.” But now Murray and his class are in high school and they’re joining the Margory Stoneman Douglas students from Parkland, Fla., to demand sensible gun laws.
Kim Russell was shot in Georgia in 1999 a few days after Columbine. She survived but her companion didn’t. She described running from bullets in the dark, diving under a truck and escaping death. She recovered from her gunshot wound.
At noon, counter-protesters gathered on the east side of City Hall Plaza flanked by dozens of police officers. As Faith Forward Dallas–Thanksgiving Square held a prayer vigil on the plaza, NRA supporters open carrying military-style assault weapons, many wearing MAGA hats walked within feet of the clergy praying for peace. As part of the service, they read the names of more than 200 people killed in Texas in gun violence in one year.
Two Marjory Stoneman Douglas students spoke at another rally at Belo Garden on Main Street a few blocks north of the convention center.
Voting has been a theme of the day. The students at city hall were registering voters from 9 a.m. through the morning. At Belo Gardens, protesters erupted into chants of “Vote them out,” referring to elected officials funded by the NRA.
— David Taffet
