Hundreds Flock To East End 'March For Our Lives'

SAG HARBOR, NY — A crowd of hundreds, from infants to grandparents, gathered in Sag Harbor Saturday to join in solidarity for a sister "March For Our Lives" event.

"Bring your loud voices — we must be heard! Gun violence is unacceptable in our schools. All are welcome, students are encouraged," said a Facebook post by organizer Sinead Murray, a senior at Pierson.

"Nothing will happen until everybody yells," Murray said at the event. She added that people must sign up to vote; they must act, and not just sit, doing nothing.

Doing nothing equals being "complicit, the first step to eternal damnation," she said.

Murray added that those who want a change need to get educated — and vote. What's a priority right now isn't the presidential election of 2020 but the mid-term elections. "We need to work to get the people we want to keep us safe into office and those who don't, out," she said.

She thanked the crowd for coming and the East End for "fearing for our students' lives. Students should be learning biology in school, not how to blockade the door fast enough. If we forget Parkland, we're doing nothing."

Sag Harbor resident Jackie Hilly, also the former executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said the change has to come on the federal level.

Referring to Rep. Lee Zeldin, who represents the East End, she said, he is "wholly owned by the NRA; he gets an 'A' NRA rating every year, gets lots and lot of donations and does their bidding. It's our job to vote him out of office."

The Concealed Carry Act, of which Zeldin is a co-sponsor, is "literal a nightmare coming to our streets," Hilly said.

Currently, she said, there are approximately 100,000 concealed carry permits holders in New York State, mostly issued to retired law enforcement, domestic violence victims and people who carry cash; in Florida alone, there are 1.8 million permit holders issued "to people like George Zimmerman who will be coming to our streets with their loaded and concealed guns," Hilly said.

"The congressman has received support from those on both sides of this issue," a representative for Zeldin said. "Unfortunately, there is a ton of other very offensive messages coming from these people."

East Hampton High School senior Gianna Gregorio spoke passionately against gun violence. "A teacher's job is to protect future generations from ignorance, not bullets," she said. And while the Hamptons might be perceived as a safe "bubble," students heading off to college "shouldn't have to choose our quality of education based on whether you can find semi-automatic weapons at a Walmart near campus," she said.

The Second Amendment, she said, was designed as a promise to a new nation. "If government becomes too dangerous we should be able to usurp it. And now in an era when the greatest danger of all is guns, action must be taken."

After speakers addressed the crowd, scores filed up and down Main Street in the village, united in their passionate voice for change.

And they weren't alone: The protests blanketed the nation — and the world.

According to the "March For Our Lives" website, "On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington D.C. to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today. March with us in Washington D.C. or march in your own community. On March 24, the collective voices of the March For Our Lives movement will be heard."

In the wake of a school shooting that killed 17 in Parkland, Florida, thousands of activists are expected to protest gun violence nationwide and around the world.

Just days after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz's deadly rampage with an AR-15-style assault rifle, students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School began organizing a march on Washington D.C. to demand stricter gun control laws. The idea inspired young people to come together for the global "March For Our Lives" protest on Saturday.

"March For Our Lives" protesters took to streets around the world with three demands to Congress: A ban on assault rifles like those used in the Parkland and Las Vegas shootings, a limitation on high-capacity magazines and a comprehensive bill that would close loopholes that allow people to buy guns in some cases without background checks.

Patch photos and videos by Lisa Finn.