Violence Protest Planned In Walnut Creek

WALNUT CREEK, CA — In the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting on an elementary school campus in a decade, a student in Northern California has decided to take a stand.

Lucy Goetz, a junior at Concord High School, is organizing a March For Our Lives demonstration against gun violence in Walnut Creek on Saturday.

Goetz told Patch that she recently checked to see if there was a march planned for her area and was surprised to see there wasn't one.

"So I decided to do something about it," she said in a Monday interview. "More than feeling, a conviction, I saw a need and decided to do what I could. This issue is important to me and the community, and it's time we take a stand."

The Bay Area student said she often thinks of her mother, who is a kindergarten teacher in Vallejo.

"...after the shooting she had students ask her to keep the door closed during class. These are 5 year olds. It makes me sick thinking that these children have to be cognizant of this, and that nothing is changing to make our schools, grocery stores, and public spaces safe again. That's why this march is so important," she said.

March For Our Lives is a student-led and nationally organized movement that came together after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. During that shooting, a 19-year-old opened fire and killed 17 people.

"Honestly, it's terrifying," Goetz said. "I personally don't feel on edge on my campus, but it's terrifying knowing that any day it could be any one of us."

On Saturday, members of the Walnut Creek community will gather at Civic Park to take a stand against gun violence. The march will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 11 a.m.

"It needs to be more difficult to obtain guns. In California, there are restrictions in place, but it varies from state to state," Goetz said. "We need a national policy that ensures that a 19 year old cannot walk out of a store with an AR in a matter of minutes."

California began restricting assault weapons in 1989 and has updated the law several times since. To date, there are an estimated 185,569 assault weapons registered within California. State law defines assault weapons as semiautomatic rifles or pistols that have a variety of functions.

Marches are also planned for Redwood City, Oakland and San Francisco on the same day, at the same time.

The marches come after a gunman killed two adults and 19 children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last week.

In California alone, 26 mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the gun violence archive. Nationwide, 213 mass shootings have been reported in 2022, according to the archive.

After the Uvalde shooting, Golden State lawmakers took swift action to pass a bill to allow private citizens to file suits against manufacturers of illegal assault weapons or untraceable ghost guns.

"Another shooting. And the GOP won't do a damn thing about it," the governor tweeted shortly after the shooting. "Who the hell are we if we cannot keep our kids safe. This is preventable. Our inaction is a choice."

READ MORE: Texas Shooting Prompts CA Senate To Pass Bill Targeting Assault Guns