Eight hundred thousand people participated in the March for Our Lives rally in Washington on March 24, according to organizers with the Never Again movement sparked by the Parkland, Florida, school massacre. The turnout was impressive — but will it lead to new gun legislation?
History suggests no. But victory is achievable — if rallies are sharpened in focus.
Enthusiasm is necessary to launch a movement. Careful strategizing is required to sustain and grow it. The Million Moms March, also dedicated to curbing gun violence, drew a similar-sized crowd in 2000. Yet the next two decades saw one mass shooting after another, the NRA gaining rather than losing political influence, and a major reversal for the gun control movement marked by the failure to renew the ban on assault weapons.
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