High School Students To Kick Off Loudoun March Against Gun Violence

STERLING, VA — A Loudoun March for Our Lives event will be held at noon on Saturday in Sterling to demand congressional action on gun violence in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas the Tops Market shooting in Buffalo, New York.

The national nonprofit March for Our Lives has called on communities across the country to join events on June 11 to call for greater gun control legislation.

"This is an official MFOL Sister March supporting the national movement for peace and gun safety in America," the organizers wrote on the event's Facebook page.

The Loudoun County march will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Participants will gather at the Cascades Stone House pool at 20670 Fernbank Court in Sterling at noon and march about 1.4 miles to Potomac Falls High School.

The event is sponsored by Loudoun Interfaith Bridges, Loudoun NAACP, Loudoun4All, Loudoun Moms Demand Action, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, and the Loudoun chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The coalition said it selected a local high school to highlight that children are the most vulnerable victims of the nation’s “gun violence epidemic and obsession with military-grade, assault-style weapons.”

Marchers will hear from two Loudoun High Schoolers — Nora Thimmesch of Dominion High School and Kylie Miller of Rock Ridge High School — who will kick off the event with their personal reasons for fighting for more gun laws. Thimmesch recently organized a walk-out at Dominion High School over the nation’s lax gun laws.

The first March for Our Lives in support of gun control legislation was a student-led demonstration that took place in Washington, D.C., in March 2018, a month after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting in Florida.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia met with Virginia high school students on Monday to discuss gun violence and legislative measures that the senator hopes will be adopted to avoid another mass shooting like the one that happened at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

Kaine, who was governor of Virginia when a student killed 32 people and injured 17 others at Virginia Tech in 2007, said it's sad that he once again is talking to high school students about gun violence. "It does compound the feeling of a wound that will never heal to know that not only is there another shooting, but Congress hasn't acted in a meaningful way," he said.

When they finish the march, participants will be greeted at Potomac Falls High School with pizza, snacks and water.

RELATED: Sen. Tim Kaine Visits VA High School To Address Gun Violence