SEQUIM — About 200 demonstrators gathered on the northeast corner of North Sequim Avenue and East Washington Street to condemn gun violence and demand tighter restrictions on firearms.
Saturday’s rally was one of hundreds of nationwide March for Our Lives protests that came in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 — when a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school — and in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 14, when a gunman opened fire in a grocery store and killed 10 people.
The focus of many in Sequim was looking ahead to the Nov. 8 general election and urging support of candidates at the local, state and federal levels who will push for action on gun control.
Stan Riddle, a Port Angeles gun owner, read to the crowd a list of laws regulating firearm use passed by the state Legislature. Among them are universal background checks; a ban on high-capacity firearm magazines; restrictions on “ghost guns”; and extreme-risk protection orders (also known as a “red flag” laws).
These were not enough, Riddle said.
“Again and again and again,” Riddle said of the frequency of the shootings. “There are too many guns in the hands of the wrong people.”
March for Our Lives was founded by survivors of the 2018 Parkland school shooting in Florida and describes itself as a “youth-led movement dedicated to promoting civic engagement, education, and direct action by youth to eliminate the epidemic of gun violence.”
There were very few youths to be seen among protesters at the Sequim rally, however.
One of them, Ruby Coulson, 17, a senior at Sequim High School, said she believed stricter assault weapon laws, federal universal background checks and improving mental health care and services would drastically decrease gun violence.
“I am not afraid of my peers,” Coulson said. “I’m afraid of the weapons they have.”
Coulson called a modified lockdown at the high school in March “terrifying,” even though there was no immediate threat to students, teachers or staff.
“I’m afraid to go to school some days,” Coulson said. “I have little to no trust the school or law enforcement will be able to respond.”
For Mike Cornforth, who retired to Port Townsend after serving in the U.S. Navy, the ubiquity of unregulated guns and semi-automatic firearms that are designed to kill were of greatest concern.
“It’s too easy to access high-capacity weapons, and this has to be stopped,” Cornforth said. “Every developed country has regulations on firearms, and we should too.”
Sequim Indivisible and Voices for Health and Healing coordinated the demonstration.
Speakers included Coulson, Sequim City Council member Vicki Lowe and 2019 Sequim High School graduate Damon Little.
Tim Wheeler of Voices for Health and Healing read from a letter sent by Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias, who could not attend the event.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com
