Gun control supporters, including residents of Newtown, Connecticut, marched from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument Saturday. News4’s Derrick Ward spoke to demonstrators on both sides of the debate.
Around 100 people from the still-grieving town of Newtown, Connecticut were in Washington this weekend to lead thousands on a march to promote gun control.
The March On Washington For Gun Control stepped off from the Capitol Reflecting Pool Saturday morning and headed down Constitution Avenue for a rally near the Washington Monument.
At least 2,500 people were expected to attend the event from all over the country. Some held signs reading "Ban Assault Weapons Now," "Stop NRA," and "Gun Control Now." Others carried signs bearing the names of gun violence victims.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and Councilmembers Phil Mendelson, Tommy Wells, and Kenyan McDuffie were spotted marching. Actress Kathleen Turner, Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund and Colin Goddard, a survivor from the Virginia Tech massacre, were also in attendance.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed the crowd, saying that he and President Barack Obama would work to enact gun control policies.
"This march is a starting point; it is not an ending point. We must act, we must act, we must act," Duncan said.
D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told the crowd that the nation's gun lobby could be stopped, to which the crowd responded "Yes, we can."
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
"We are all culpable if we do nothing now," Norton said.
The march came more than a month after a deadly shooting inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, which left 20 first graders and six teachers dead. The Dec. 14 shooting reignited national discussion over gun control laws, and led President Obama to make several new gun control proposals.
