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Lexington Youth Lend Their Voices To Anti-Gun Violence March

Josh James
/
WUKY

Lexington students rallied in solidarity with nationwide anti-gun violence demonstrations Saturday in the city's courthouse plaza.

Huddled under umbrellas, hundreds of protesters battled numbing temperatures and freezing rain, with many carrying signs with messages for legislators: “Not one more,” “No Way NRA,” and “Make America Safe Again.”

Credit Josh James
/
Josh James

Speakers called for action on gun control measures to help prevent shootings like the one that took the lives of two students and injured more than a dozen at Kentucky’s Marshall County High, the first school shooting to receive widespread media coverage in 2018.

"Our legislators should be working their butts off to change that and to make sure that it never happens again," Tates Creek High School student Sarah Ali told the audience.

Organizers said the student-run sister march mirroring events in Washington and across the country should serve as a wake-up call.

Credit Josh James
/
Josh James

"It's important because children are dying," said Lafayette High School junior McKayla Weaver. "I should be thankful that I'm getting an education at school, not thankful that I'm coming home still safe and alive."

Weaver said it’s time for new leadership and she believes her generation will usher in changes.

The nationwide marches come in the wake of school shootings in Parkland, Florida and Benton, Kentucky that have reignited the gun control debate.

Josh James fell in love with college radio at Western Kentucky University's student station, New Rock 92 (now Revolution 91.7). After working as a DJ and program director, he knew he wanted to come home to Lexington and try his hand in public radio.
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