SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — As the clouds fired down rain from the sky, Claire Farnsworth shot her voice out into the crowd gathered in front of the Illinois State Capitol.
Farnsworth is a senior at Glenwood High School in Chatham. The 18-year-old always considered herself an activist, but gun violence became her focus following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
“Since this is the country we’re going to inherit, a lot of us in our generation find it really important to make sure we’re inheriting something we want,” she said.
March for Our Lives rallies popped up across the United States, with some demonstrations numbering in the tens and even hundreds of thousands. Demonstrators say these rallies will put more pressure on state and federal lawmakers to pass additional gun control legislation.
“We all want the same thing,” said Glenwood senior Sumayya Hameed. “We all want to feel safe again.”
But not everyone braving the cold rain wants more regulation.
Tom Shafer led a group of counter protestors across the street. Their numbers were small — a few dozen compared to a couple hundred in the main rally.
But what Shafer’s group lacked in size, they made up in intensity.
“[Guns] stop rapists from hurting women,” Shafer said. “They stop armed robberies at convenience stores. They stop home invasions. That’s not done with harsh language or with a rolled up newspaper — that’s done with a firearm.”
But that same passion and intensity echoed across the street from the opposite viewpoint.
Farnsworth and her classmates want additional background checks and more restrictions on semi-automatic rifles — and they refuse to let anyone scoff at their age.
“It’s never too early to have a voice,” she said. “We know our facts. We know what’s going on. We have our voice and we’re not going to stop just because you think we’re too young.”
