Just 10 days after staging school walkouts across the nation, students are preparing another protest. On Saturday's March For Our Lives, they're again demanding Congressional action to address gun violence - this time, with a march on the Ohio Statehouse.
Though they're hoping to pressure legislators into passing stricter gun control, student organizer Megan Briegel is emphasizing common ground.
“It’s important to remember that even though there are two different sides to this conversation. Everybody wants the same goal,” she says. “We all want guns to stay out of the wrong hands, we all want school shootings to stop, we all want gun violence to go down.”
For the main march, are expecting hundreds of thousands of attendees marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. Hundreds of Ohio students from Columbus and Cleveland are traveling to D.C. to attend.
But the Columbus turnout could be significant in its own right. On Facebook, nearly 5,000 people have said they’re going, but Briegel and local coordinators are actually expecting far more.
"Our original estimates are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000,” Briegel says. "But that number could go up because not everybody is going to register for the march, not everybody is going respond to our Facebook page."
With 2 days to go, this is the parade route, as well as the parking lots nearby! #MarchForOurLives #NeverAgain #NotOneMore pic.twitter.com/fs34Bv9Zsd
— March For Our Lives Columbus Ohio (@mfolcolumbus) March 22, 2018
The Columbus event begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at West Bank Park. There will be speeches at the park, and then demonstrators will march to the Statehouse. Other local events are planned in Newark and Mt. Vernon, as well as in Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland.
The ride hailing service Lyft is offering free rides for attendees who register on the March For Our Lives website.
