These activists wore their fiery passion on their sleeves.
Hundreds of gun-law-reform advocates marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in bright orange shirts on Saturday, some of whom carried a white casket as they led the crowd in a charged demonstration demanding action from lawmakers to prevent more senseless, fatal shootings.
Outraged young participants amped up the procession’s electric atmosphere, reinvigorating the spirits of other long-time protestors, according to a Mill Basinite who joined the procession and lost her nephew to a bullet in 2008.
“It’s great to see them stand up and use their voices to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Marie Delus, a volunteer with advocacy group Moms Demand Action, which pushes for common-sense firearm legislation, who is also a military veteran and a National Rifle Association member. “They are invigorating us, the old-timers that have been doing this for so long.”
The sea of teens dressed in orange — the color of solidarity adopted by groups leading the gun-law-reform movement that include Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety — walked hand-in-hand across the steel span to Manhattan, with some brandishing posters that read “The NRA is a Terrorist Organization” and “The Scariest Thing in School Should be My Grades.”
But local kids weren’t the only ones who stepped for change at the event. Celebrities including actress-activists Julianne Moore and Susan Sarandon joined the march, along with demonstrators who traveled from the outer boroughs, further afield in New York State, and even overseas — some of whom pointed out that living in fear of senseless gun violence is a concern unique to the United States, according to another volunteer.
“Someone from England came up to me and said, ‘We don’t worry about guns over there,’ ” said Everytown member Michele Davis, who commuted from her home upstate to protest. “That was a very poignant moment.”
