March for our lives takes place nationwide and in St. Peter

ST. PETER, Minn. (KEYC) - A small, activist community came together in St. Peter on Saturday to rally against gun violence, as part of the nationwide “March for our Lives” movement.

“March for our Lives” happened previously in 2018. The movement was brought back this year after recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.

“I hope that this is the momentum that we need. I feel hopeful that we’ve been called to do this and there’s people who were willing to organize this, people who were willing to show up here today. That does give me some hope that when we get loud enough we can actually make some change,” leadership member of Indivisible and chair of Senate district 18-DFL Leah Hanson said.

According to Hanson, demonstrators say they are shocked by the almost daily, national shootings happening across the country, and they’re devastated that guns are now the number-one leading cause of child deaths in America.

“And for the parents whos babies make up that statistic, those numbers are very, very meaningful. And its that deep meaning that has mobilized me from this place, that I’m sort of sad to admit, that I was sitting in where I felt like I couldn’t move forward,” Moms Demand Action member Jennifer Andrashko said.

The St. Peter march and rally was co-organized by Indivisible Mankato and Moms Demand Action. Members came to create signs, march as a group, and listen to guest speakers about the need for action against gun violence.

Dimock: “I don’t see how going along the way that we are, this way, is sustainable- at all. There is no other option. It has to change, because this doesn’t work,” St. Peter high school English teacher Peggy Dimock said.

The group calls for legislative and community action to protect school children, especially.

“Vote people that are for abolishing this nonsense,” activist John Arnoldy said.

“I don’t want it to happen to anybody else in our city, in our county, or across our state. And these are common sense things we can do,” House district 18A-DFL candidate Jeff Brand said.