Protesters demand action to stop gun violence
Hundreds of protesters gathered in White Plains to demand action to end gun violence.
Protesters demand action to stop gun violence Hundreds of protesters gathered in White Plains to demand action to end gun violence. Check out this story on lohud.com: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2018/02/18/protesters-gun-violence/349549002/
Akiko Matsuda, amatsuda@lohud.com Published 6:06 p.m. ET Feb. 18, 2018
Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Westchester GOP committee building, demanding action to end gun violence.(Photo: Akiko Matsuda/The Journal News)Buy Photo
WHITE PLAINS - Hundreds of angry parents, neighbors and politicians gathered Sunday afternoon in front of the Westchester Republican County Committee building, demanding action to end gun violence in the wake of Wednesday's school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people.
"Protect our kids! Protect our kids!" they chanted at the intersection of Mamaroneck and Maple avenues. "Enough is enough! Enough is enough!"
Protesters, who spilled over into the streets, held colorful signs with phrases such as "How many more have to die?" and "Save our kids!"
Some drivers expressed their support by honking their horn.
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Iris Lechaud, vice chairwoman of local political action group Up2Us, said she and other organizers chose the location because even though gun control has the underlying constitutional issue that should be handled by the Republican-controlled White House and Congress, local Republicans are also complicit in America's mass shooting epidemic.
"We are fed up," Lechaud said. "We decided on Thursday afternoon and put this together and gathered together."
Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Westchester GOP committee building, demanding action to end gun violence. (Photo: Akiko Matsuda/The Journal News)
Westchester Republican Committee Chairman Douglas A. Colety did not return phone and email messages Sunday.
The event was also sponsored by "Indivisible" groups of Westhcester, NYCD16, Rivertowns as well as the Northern Westchester chapter of Million Mom March.
Erin Fuller, 30, of White Plains, joined the protest, saying that she can no longer sit idle after experiencing two mass shootings so close to her: She grew up in Connecticut, just 10 minutes from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 26 people, including 20 children, were killed in 2012. And in October, she and her fiance survived the shooting in the music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, where 58 people were killed.
"How many more beautiful lives need to be lost before we do something?" Fuller asked the crowd rhetorically.
Fuller said she believed that the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida, was likely to be caused by a disturbed individual who displayed numerous warning signs prior to the incident.
Erin Fuller, center, speaks during a protest Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, demanding action to end gun violence. (Photo: Akiko Matsuda/The Journal News)
"Every citizen of this county needs to step up to the plate," she said. "If you know something, hear something, suspect something or see something, you must say something before it's too late."
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