People hold up signs during a March For Our Lives event in downtown Las Vegas Saturday, March 24, 2018. Over 2,000 people participated in the march and rally in front of Las Vegas City Hall.
Saturday, March 24, 2018 | 4:29 p.m.
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In front of hundreds of gun-control demonstrators, the woman’s animated demeanor briefly tattered, her voice breaking down as she uttered, “my name is Stephanie, and I’m a Route 91 survivor.”
She was one of many who spoke today during the local “March For Our Lives” event in downtown.
“Instead of crying, we are speaking. Instead of thoughts and prayers, we are protesting. And instead of waiting, we are begging change,” said Stephanie Wellek in calling for gun control legislation.
“We endured 10 minutes of terror while 1,000 bullets rained down on us,” Wellek continued, noting that the gunman was able to amass an arsenal of 55 weapons — mostly rifles — in a year’s span. “Does that seem odd to you? Seems like a pattern we should question.”
“Never again! Never again! Never again!” the crowd roared back at her.
The rally and half-mile march from Symphony Park to the City Hall coincided with the similar events across the country that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanding gun control legislation.
The movement stemmed from the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead, including 14 students. It also comes nearly six months after the Route 91 massacre that killed 58 and injured about 800 on the Las Vegas Strip.
Metro Police estimated there to be between 2,000 an 2,500 participants at the Las Vegas event with no police incidents reported, Lt Patricia Cervantes said.
Bass thumps and percussion snaps from a drum crew made up of Sierra Vista High School students kept the demonstrators in cadence as they marched down Bonneville Avenue, hoisting signs and fists.
“Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today?” they exclaimed. “Two, four, six, eight: stop the violence; stop the hate.”
“You can’t fix stupid, but you can vote it out,” read a sign. “Schools are not gun ranges,” read another.
Eric Sutta, 40, listened attentively as U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, students, gun violence survivors, activists and poets gave impassioned speeches.
Saturday was emotional for Sutta, who was commemorating his longtime friend, Scott Beigel, a geography teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was killed while saving students on Feb. 14.
Both men had been counselors together at a summer camp in Pennsylvania. This year would have been their 28th year of friendship, said Sutta, who wore a T-shirt with a photo of his friend.
“I hope this makes some change so his death wasn’t in vain and this violence stops and keeping schools safe is important, but gun laws have got to change,” Sutta said.
Organizers had partnered with lobbying groups, such as Everytown for Gun Safety, which had pledged to help fund the marches. It was designed partially to give children an opportunity to express their desires for more strict gun laws.
“I just want to tell people to march for their lives, to join this movement because it’s very important for us to stand together united,” said Valeria Medina, a Valley High student..
