On Valentine’s Day 2018, activists from Gays Against Guns were entering Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn’s Washington office to protest his sponsorship of a bill to give gun owners the right to carry concealed weapons across state lines when a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 students and staff members and injuring 17 others.
One year later, Gays Against Guns members from New York and Columbus, Ohio, joined by other gun control activists, returned to Washington to mark the tragic anniversary, draw attention to a Second Amendment challenge to a New York City ordinance limiting gun owners from transporting weapons outside their homes, and demand Senate action on HR 8, a bipartisan background checks bill covering all gun sales.
The group marched from Union Station in Washington to the Supreme Court Building and then on to both the Russell and Hart Senate Office Buildings.
Eight activists were arrest in the Hart Building after forming a giant red “broken heart” image on the floor of the atrium while “Human Beings” dressed in white with veils on held up images of lives lost to gun violence.
Gays Against Guns formed in June 2016 in the immediate aftermath of the carnage at the Pulse LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that claimed 49 lives and caused more than 50 other injuries.
