About 50 pro-gun activists marched up and down a single city block in Los Angeles[1] on Saturday, as part of a national event billed as the conservative alternative to the March for Our Lives, the gun control movement founded by survivors of the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Chanting “gun rights are human rights” and “freedom isn’t free!” the activists, many of them in their teens and early 20s, warned of the dangers of gun control laws and argued that older white men are not the only Americans who support pro-gun policies.
Several of the women there, including organizer Xena Amirani, 19, wore pink shirts emblazoned with the slogan: “Gun rights are women’s rights.”
Michele DeGroote, the march’s communications chair, who was also wearing one of the pink shirts said: “I’m only 15 now, but when I’m in college, I want to be able to know that I’m going to be safe and defend myself.”
Guns were an “equalizer between men and women”, she said. “Biologically, men are stronger than us. A firearm can level that playing field.”
“Gun rights are minority rights,” said Osje Peña, 21, another march organizer, who grew up in Los Angeles and cited rapper Tupac Shakur’s support for gun rights. The musician was shot dead at the age of 25.
When you think about the second amendment, which guarantees Americans’ gun rights, “what stands out?” Amirani asked the crowd during her speech. “Shall not be infringed!” the activists bellowed back.
The March 4 Our Rights, organized by Amirani, a college student from Malibu, California[2], had planned rallies in more than 10 cities nationwide on Saturday, including Chicago and Washington DC, where Dick Heller,
