March for Our Lives events to be held in Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott, elsewhere on March 24

FLAGSTAFF — A March for Our Lives event will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 24 at the Flagstaff City Hall, 211 W. Aspen St., Flagstaff.

“Join us at the lawn at City Hall from 3-5:00 pm to stand in solidarity with the Parkland, Florida students in demanding more common sense gun laws and safer schools. All welcome. Student speakers are wanted. Please call or text 928-525-9431.”

The local event and elsewhere nationwide is in support of a March for Our Lives gathering on Saturday, March 24 in Washington, D.C.

Events are planned in Sedona, Prescott, Kingman, Phoenix and elsewhere in Arizona, along with small and large cities throughout the nation.

The march is in response to the mass shooting on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that took the lives of 17 students and teachers.

Student-led efforts have since led to the passage of gun safety legislation in Florida, with companies ending their advertising support for NRA programs and the ending of the sale of assault-style weapons at various retailers.

Students and families have also met with state and federal legislators in support of stronger background checks and other school safety efforts.

At Flagstaff High School, student leaders presented a “Conversation” community forum held March 14 in the school’s Commons area that included representations from Flagstaff’s business community, non-profit organizations, elected officials, students and staff.

“Flagstaff High School student government wants to have the conversation of school safety, however we want to go about it in a more productive manner,” Joshua M. Vallecillo, Student Body President, stated ahead of the event.

 

Other regional locations:

• Prescott: Noon at Courthouse Square, 120 S. Cortez St.
• Sedona: 2:30 p.m. at Sedona Red Rock High School, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road.

 

Please see related stories:

AzDaily Sun — Flagstaff 18-minute March for Our Lives Saturday to feature student speakers at City Hall

AzCentral — 13 Arizona March For Our Lives events planned: What to know to attend

AzCentral — Three more ‘March For Our Lives’ gun-control rallies planned across Arizona

March for Our Lives National events — Click here

 

Additional Information:

March for Our Lives Phoenix — March for our Lives Phoenix will be held the Arizona Capitol, 1700 W. Jefferson, Saturday, March 24, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

March for Our Lives Phoenix is a non-partisan, grassroots organization founded by Valley high school students Jordan Harb of Mountain View High School, and Samantha Lekberg of Willow Canyon High School in Surprise.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their support and for choosing to be a part of March for Our Lives Phoenix,” said co-chair Jordan Harb. “With the community’s help, we will achieve reform in gun safety legislation and awareness.”

The Phoenix Capitol march was planned to coincide with the main event in Washington, D.C. and the more than 800 sibling events worldwide.

DONATIONS
To make donations, visit our official webpage at www.marchforourlivesaz.org. Contributions made at https://www.marchforourlivesaz.org are tax deductible. The local organizing committee has raised more than $30,000 to stage this event. We thank you for your donations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
For updated information about the march, visit the March for Our Lives Phoenix Facebook page or email phxmarch4ourlives@gmail.com.

RELATED LINKS

– March for Our Lives Phoenix Gun Violence Prevention Plan 
– Download a copy of the letter delivered to Gov. Ducey on March 14.
– View video of Wednesday’s March for Our Lives Press Conference and the sit-in
– Link to high-resolution archive photos of the students from the March 14 action at the Capitol

More than 14,000 people have indicated they are interested or confirmed (via the group’s Facebook event page) to attend the March for Our Lives Phoenix.

Facts about gun violence:

• Arizona now ranks 47 out of 50 states as having the weakest gun laws in the nation, according to the Giffords Law Center annual scorecard.
• Every day nearly 100 people are killed with guns in the United States
• More than 100,000 people every year are killed or injured with guns nationwide
• A mass shooting –meaning four or more people shot in one incident, not including the shooter – happens in the U.S. 9 out of every 10 days
• Firearms kill 33,000 people every year in the U.S.
• Two-thirds of gunshot victims are suicides and most of them are killed with handguns
• More than 85 percent of people who commit suicide with a gun are men
• A woman is five times as likely to be killed in a domestic violence incident if a gun is present
• The number of Arizona children who commit suicide in Arizona every year has jumped more than 80 percent since 2009, and about one-third of all suicides by children involves a gun
• In Arizona, 2,200 shootings a year occur, including 600 children who are killed or injured
• Every day, an average of seven children are killed with guns in the U.S., and about every three days a child in Arizona is killed by a firearm
• Black men are 13 times more likely to be killed by guns than non-Hispanic white men
• Hispanics are killed by guns at twice the rate of non-Hispanic whites
• More Americans have been killed by guns since 1968, about 1.5 million people, than in all of the U.S. wars combined in history
• Americans own an estimated 265m guns, more than one gun for every adult.
• The homicide rate by firearm in 2012 was 22 times higher in the United States than in Australia, which hasn’t had a mass shooting since 1996, the year it passed major gun violence prevention legislation
• In the U.S., fewer people die in states with strong gun laws

Sources include the CDC, Gun Violence Archive, Arizona Department of Health Services, Everytownresearch.org, Violence Policy Center, Giffords Law Center, and the National Center for Health Statistics