‘March for our Lives’ gun reform rallies to be held in NJ Saturday

<p>Students nationwide who say that they are fed up with gun violence in schools will be marching in a series of protests called &ldquo;March for our Lives.&rdquo;</p>

News 12 Staff

Mar 23, 2018, 2:22 AM

Updated 2,390 days ago

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Students nationwide who say that they are fed up with gun violence in schools will be marching in a series of protests called “March for our Lives.”
The main rally will be held in Washington, D.C. Saturday, but there will be sister marches all over the country. Ten such marches will be held in New Jersey.
The marches are in direct response to the mass shooting at Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were gunned down by a former student.
News 12 New Jersey spoke with six Monmouth County students who will be participating in the rally in Red Bank this weekend. The students say that they are pushing for gun reform and changes to school security.
“Anything that’s a weapon of war and used for killing people…should not be something that people can just obtain easily,” says 16-year-old Dixie O’Connell.
Sixteen-year-old Shea Grant says she doesn’t want to feel like she is a prisoner in school.
"I don't think that we should be putting in metal detectors or anything of that sort because I think that's instituting a nature of fear,” she says.
About 1,500 people are expected to march from Red Bank Train Station to Riverside Park for one of the rallies. Rallies will also be held in Asbury Park, Haddon Heights, Hoboken, Jersey City, Morristown, Newark, Ocean City, Princeton and Union County.
Rally organizers say that they are designed to push Congress to change laws concerning background and mental health checks.
“If this whole movement can just save one life, stop one mass shooting, stop one wrong person from getting the gun, then it will be a victory,” says Red Bank Regional High School student Sam Zatorski.
"I don't want this to get swept under the rug I want this to be something that keeps on being talked about,” O’Connell says.
Some New Jersey gun owners say that they plan to hold their own rally in Trenton Monday in response to the March for Our Lives rally. 
The New Jersey Chapter of the NRA says that it considers such legislation an assault on Second Amendment rights.