Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 28, 2018
Will the March for our Lives Lead to Real Change?
On May 14, 2000, marchers descended upon Washington, D.C., from all corners of the country. On a bright spring day, an estimated seven hundred and fifty thousand people listened to a series of speakers, some of whom had lost friends and family members to gun violence, engage in a collective call for tougher gun laws. The protesters’ sheer numbers and the power of their message were such that it seemed nobody would dare defy them.
February 25, 2018
That was the Million Mom March. It followed a series of horrendous mass shootings, including the massacre at Columbine High School. And it was followed by almost two decades of inaction on Congress’s part. “Today, the year 2000 is remembered not for the birth of a gun control movement,” USA Today’s Rick Hampson noted last week, “but for the start of the National Rifle Association’s two-decade domination of gun politics.”
Will the aftermath of this weekend’s March for Our Lives be any different? It’s hard to know the difference between the cynical argument and the realist one. The White House, both houses of Congress, and most state legislatures and governor’s mansions are under the control of the Republican Party, which remains firmly in hock to the gun lobby. Right after the Parkland shooting, Donald Trump promised to stand up to the N.R.A., and then caved almost immediately. The country is in a feverish state. The news agenda changes by the hour, and even huge events, such as this Saturday’s giant marches in Washington and other cities, tend to fade from the headlines quickly. (Continued: New Yorker)