Percy Coolidge, left, and Jordan Stevens, both from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, address the Lewiston March for Our Lives rally in Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

LEWISTON — Over 100 people marched Saturday in Lewiston as part of March for Our Lives, a student-led protest against gun violence.

The main march was held in Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning, and “sibling locations” held hundreds of marches across the world, including New York, San Francisco, Boston and Houston.

Lewiston’s march was organized in part by Lewiston High School student Sean Monteith, who gave a passionate speech to the crowd about gun control.

“The self-interest of Americans are not be represented equally because of the representatives put in place by the NRA, by these lobbying campaigns that decided that our lives do not matter, that we do not matter as people,” Monteith said.

“After two decades of inaction, something might actually happen,” Monteith said.

Advertisement

He encouraged the crowd to elect representatives who will fight to implement gun control.

“A simple question can be asked: Does the ownership of high-capacity weapons matter, or do our lives matter? What matters more?” he said. “Republicans have decided time and time again that our lives do not matter. It’s time to change that.”

He encouraged anyone present to vote in the upcoming elections Nov. 6.

“We must enact change — that is the only way this happens,” Monteith said.

“Hopefully, after today and after what has happened around the nation, it will motivate people,” he said. “Gun control is just the beginning.”

March for Our Lives was created, was inspired and led by students across the country as a response to the epidemic of mass shootings, according to its website.

Advertisement

“We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school,” according to the movement’s website. “We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives.”

About 100 protesters march from Kennedy Park to Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon. The march was part of a nationally coordinated group of marches around the country to protest gun violence. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

About 100 protesters march from Kennedy Park to Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon. The march was part of a nationally coordinated group of marches around the country to protest gun violence. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Kaitlin Bianconi Catalano, right, tells the story of how her younger sister, Riley Ann, left, was worried that all of her classmates would not fit in the bathrooms in her classroom in the event that everyone had to hide. The pair addressed the Lewiston March for Our Lives rally in Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Percy Coolidge, left, and Jordan Stevens, both from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, observe a moment of silence for the victims of gun violence at a rally at Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Paul Catalano, 8, attends the March for Our Lives rally at Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday. Paul wants to join the U.S. Marines when he grows up. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

About 100 protesters march from Kennedy Park to Dufresne Plaza in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon. The march was part of a nationally coordinated group of marches around the country to protest gun violence. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Comments are no longer available on this story

filed under: