Grant explains that two of her family members were victims of gun violence. She points to the first photo, a black-and-white portrait of her Uncle Leon. Grant never met her uncle; he was shot and killed during a heated argument with a friend before she was born. The second photo features two small children with huge grins on their faces. Her expression grows colder as she recalls finding her cousin Steve lying in the street, covered in blood, when she was only 21 years old.

“It usually takes the death of certain people for others to take notice,” she says. “There are a lot of people who are dying, and there is a lot of blood being soaked in the grounds of America.”

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On February 14, 2018, 13 teenage lives were lost after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The new face of the American anti-gun movement quickly became a passionate group of students who witnessed the tragedy firsthand. After countless tweets, various television interviews and one Time magazine cover, the adolescent survivors quickly transformed into micro-celebrities who have refused to be ignored by politicians and other adults.

Though they differ in race, age and location, Grant and the Parkland students share one thing in common: they’ve both witnessed the traumatic impact of gun violence. Grant says she’s thankful the Parkland students have been vocal about their anti-gun stance, but she’s quickly noticed a difference in the media narrative surrounding the white high school students and black victims of gun violence.

“The kids from Parkland are very motivated, and their teachers have trained them very well to be public defenders of everyone and give themselves a voice,” she says. “The media likes certain types of victims, and other victims are not given the same due. Victims who are white and white-appearing, who are middle class and upper class and come from certain neighborhoods, are typically the ones who are given the voice.”

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Grant isn’t the only person who is frustrated with the media’s portrayal of white activists. Over the last few years, some feel the Black Lives Matter movement has often been demonized by the American media. Many black Americans perceive drastically varying narratives surrounding victims of gun violence, creating feelings of disappointment and disenchantment within black communities.

The evening before the march, longtime anti-gun activist Jamira Burley spoke on a panel about gun control legislation at the National Press Club. A lifelong social justice advocate, Burley is the senior advisor at the Community Justice Reform Coalition. She spoke to attendees about the importance of creating an intersection between Black Lives Matter activists and their white peers.

“We finally have victims who have, because of their privilege, received a national platform because they’re white,” she says. “We need to see all human death as a problem, regardless if this person is a drug dealer or student.”

Like many other activists, Burley praised the Parkland students for their continued effort to include members of other, less privileged communities in their discussions of gun violence. She stressed the importance of intersectionality in widespread social movements and noted how the youngest generation is more socially conscious than their predecessors.

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“They’ve done what their parents haven’t done, which is be inclusive,” she says.

The Parkland students have acknowledged their own privilege, and they’ve been vocal about their desire for communication among various anti-gun violence movements. Seventeen-year-old Eryn Banton is a high school activist who wishes all victims of gun violence could be treated with the same respect.

“I’m extremely thankful that these students are using their platform to make a difference, but I wish that people would see the flaws in the process,” she says. “[The media] is talking about schools and just paying attention to those students, but they called Black Lives Matter activists terrorists. We’re all fighting for the same thing. We just want to stay alive.”

The morning of the March for Our Lives, hundreds of Black Lives Matter activists gathered in D.C.’s Folger Park. Young black activists gave compelling speeches and performed powerful spoken word pieces about gun violence within their own communities. Onlookers of every race cheered and showered the adolescents with praise and support. National Collegiate Preparatory High School teacher Gianni Clarkson, 38, discussed the unexpected death of one of his students. A young father on his way to college, Zoruan Otto Harris was another young, black victim of gun violence.

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“In certain communities, [gun violence] is expected and nobody feels bad about it, but when it happens in other communities, it’s a tragedy,” says Clarkson. “I don’t want to trivialize what’s happening, but when children are shot and killed in D.C., no one walks out for them. What does that tell my students?”

Richard Wright Public Charter School student Imani Romney, 16, read a powerful poem in front of the enthusiastic crowd. Romney wondered if her “school of color” would receive as much media attention as Stoneman Douglas High School if a school shooting occurred.

“I had a friend ask me, if this same shooting happened at our school, would we get the same amount of press?” she asked. “I told her I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean we should stop fighting, and that doesn’t mean we should sit back and watch and let more of these things happen.”

The post Disparate Media Coverage? Comparing Parkland & Black Lives Matter appeared first on Gun March 2018.

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Standing outside of Trump International Hotel, Jean and Colin Valentine were each holding handwritten signs expressing their pro-gun stances. Jean, who would not provide his last name, was wearing a bright red “Make America Great Again” hat. His sign read, “Gun grabbers only care about lives when a gun is involved.”

“I personally don’t believe any gun control has been effective at reducing violence,” he says. “I don’t really make the distinction between violence and gun violence. I mean, it doesn’t matter how people die – it matters that they’re dying.”

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Both Jean and Valentine are gun owners. Jean believes prosecuting gun crimes more strictly would lessen domestic gun violence and says universal gun ownership would make American citizens safer.

“I see gun ownership like vaccinations. The more people that have it, the less people die,” he says.

Valentine’s sign reads, “Freedom of speech and assembly aren’t guaranteed by the First Amendment. They’re guaranteed by the second!” He says he wants the marchers to research gun control laws before making assumptions.

“I would encourage people to look into the research on this and realize that a lot of the measures that the gun control proponents are proposing really wouldn’t work,” he says.

Brandon Howard is a disabled combat veteran from Hopewell, VA. With a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, he held a handwritten sign that read, “Keep your hands off my guns.” He came to the march because he believes it’s his duty to defend the constitution and says the anti-gun camp is infringing on his constitutional rights.

“I’ve took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” he says. “Any assault on the constitution is a domestic assault that I must defend.”

He believes any law-abiding citizen should be able to own a gun.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” he says. “The gun’s only a tool, and the gun is constitutionally protected. So why don’t we ban cars? Why don’t we ban fertilizers so you can’t make a bomb, so you can’t grow your plants? How about we ban anything that can kill somebody? Then what are you left with? Nothing.”

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Joe was holding a sign that reads, “Shall Not Be Infringed #2A #RightsNotFeels #MyRightsTrumpYourFeelings.” A gun owner who is not affiliated with the NRA, Joe would not disclose his last name, citing concerns about retaliation from his employer. Even though his sign could be interpreted as an inflammatory, statement, his demeanor is surprisingly calm.

“I’m just here to state my opinion,” he says. “If [protestors] want to yell at me, I’m here to chill out.”

Even though he didn’t grow up around guns, he says he supports gun rights because of their place in America’s past.

“Historically, firearms laws were used to disenfranchise minorities and the poor, and its actually been used by the government and leadership to actually strip the rights of the people that it didn’t necessarily want to have rights,” he says. “The National Firearms Act placed an extremely high burden of a tax on firearms to prevent the transfer to people who weren’t rich.”

Joe also puts a high value on his personal safety, and believes guns are a tool for self-protection.

“The supreme court has ruled multiple times that there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state from criminals,” he says. “If the state isn’t going to do it, then the only person who’s left to do it is myself. If I’m going to protect myself, I need to own a firearm or something I can use to defend myself from a criminal.”

A few March for Our Lives protestors tried to argue with Joe, but he says they’re free to speak their minds just like he is. Even though he doesn’t necessarily agree with the anti-gun marchers, he came to the march to express his views.

“I’m just glad I live in America where I can do this, and I’m glad I live in a country where these guys can do it too,” Joe said. “I feel like people are going to be civil and that they’re going to respect my opinion as I’m respecting theirs. As long as we treat each other with respect, we should be fine.”

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